Chris Howe lls

christopherh@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

The headline number beat analysts’ expectations for a 20 per cent rise and economists said barring unforeseen circumstances, Singapore’s exports for the year could well overtake the peaks seen in 2007.

The surge in exports was led by electronics products, which rose 39 per cent on-year, after a 26-percent rise in February.

This was due mainly to demand for semiconductors and personal computer parts.

Meanwhile, exports of nonelectronic products grew 20 per cent, a tad slower than the 22 per cent the previous month.

Exports to all of Singapore’s top 10 export partners increased, especially for Hong Kong, China, the European Union and Indonesia.

Economists see the rise as sustainable, but warn of a challenging second half.

Standard Chartered Bank economist Alvin Liew said for “Eurozone, the improvement was quite good, slightly more than 30 per cent increase, but when we shift our attention to another key market, the US the improvement was one of the lower ones at around 10 per cent, bearing in mind that we’re coming from a bad year, the base is very low”.

He added that “going ahead, the recovery process from the different markets could be uneven, especially for the G3 markets and there might be more of a slowdown for the export recovery in the second half of the year.”

The latest trade data comes, just two days after the government said the Singapore economy grew a strong 32 per cent in the first quarter, compared with the previous three months.