Singapore's total merchandise trade drops by 9.5 pct in 2015
Xinhua, February 24, 2016 Adjust font size:
Singapore's total merchandise trade declined by 9.5 percent in 2015, in contrast to the 0.1 percent expansion in 2014, said a report released Wednesday by the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.
Singapore's total merchandise trade reached 884.1 billion Singapore dollars (631.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, lower than the previous year's achievement of 997 billion Singapore dollars (712.1 billion U.S. dollars), said IE Singapore.
Total merchandise exports dropped 7.2 percent in 2015 while merchandise imports declined by 12.1 percent in the same period.
The contraction in total merchandise trade was due to a decline in oil trade which outweighed the growth in non-oil trade. Oil trade contracted significantly by 36 percent in 2015, after declining by 1.7 percent in the preceding year. Non-oil trade increased by 0.4 percent in 2015, following the 0.8 percent growth in the previous year.
Even though, the total merchandise trade contraction of 9.5 percent was higher than IE's projected 2015 growth of -10.5 to -10.0 percent, the agency said.
On a year-on-year basis, total merchandise trade fell 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The International Enterprise (IE) Singapore is the government agency driving Singapore's external economy, which spearheads the overseas growth of Singapore-based companies and promotes international trade. Enditem