Singapore's exports down 9.7 pct in February

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports, a key gauge of the export performance of the small and highly open economy, fell by 9.7 percent on year in February, the country's trade promotion agency International Enterprises (IE) Singapore said on Tuesday.

The decline came after a 4.3-percent increase on-year in January. Statistics shows that the decline was attributable to a fall in shipments of electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The key reason for the decrease was the Lunar New Year falling in February this year, compared to January in 2014, economists said.

Electronic non-oil domestic exports (NODX) decreased by 12.5 percent on-year in February, in contrast to the 5.0 percent growth in the previous month, IE Singapore said.

Non-electronic NODX contracted by 8.5 percent in February, in contrast to the 4.0 percent increase in the previous month.

Except South Korea, United States, Thailand and Malaysia, NODX to all of the top 10 NODX markets decreased in February on a year- on-year basis. The top three contributors to the contraction were China, Japan and China's Taiwan.

Non-oil re-exports (NORX) increased by 0.9 percent on-year in February, following the 12.7 percent expansion in the previous month, due to an increase in electronic NORX which outweighed the decrease in non-electronic NORX. Endi