Singapore July Non-Oil Exports Rise 8.5% on Year

Singapore's key non-oil exports rose a little slower than expected in July due to a steep fall in the highly volatile shipments of pharmaceutical drugs.

Exports of goods made in Singapore rose 8.5% in July compared with a year earlier, after a 8.8% gain in June, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said Thursday.

The median estimate from a Wall Street Journal poll of six economists was for July exports to expand 9.1% from a year earlier.

Compared with the previous month, exports fell 2.5% in seasonally adjusted terms, after contracting 2.2% on month in June. The poll had projected a flat outcome.

The city-state's shipments to China, its biggest export destination, rose 20.9% in July from a year earlier, compared with a 48.9% on-year gain in the previous month, IE Singapore said.

Exports to the European Union, however, fell 22.3%, worse than a 3.3% contraction in June. Exports to the U.S. also reverted to a contraction with a 5.9% on-year fall after a flat result in the previous month.

Electronics exports rose 16.3% on year in July, accelerating from a 5.4% gain in June. Non-electronics shipments grew 5.2%, compared with a 10.1% rise in the previous month.

Non-electronics exports were dragged by pharmaceutical shipments, which fell 53.6% measured over the previous year, after falling 34.2% in the previous month.

Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at gaurav.raghuvanshi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2017 20:45 ET (00:45 GMT)