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[SINGAPORE] The Republic’s key exports jumped 12.4 per cent on the year in April, outstripping estimates as both electronics shipments and non-electronics grew, data from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) showed on Friday (May 16).

The latest non-oil domestic exports (NODX) print picked up from the preceding month’s 5.4 per cent expansion. It also far exceeded the median 4.3 per cent growth anticipated by private-sector economists in a Bloomberg poll.

This was the first month that key exports charted double-digit growth since August last year, when NODX jumped 10.3 per cent.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, NODX increased 10.4 per cent, reversing from the preceding month’s revised 7.5 per cent contraction.

Year on year, electronics exports rose 23.5 per cent in April, widening from the 12.2 per cent climb in the month before. PCs (124.3 per cent), integrated circuits (23.3 per cent) and disk media products (33 per cent) led the increase.

Non-electronics shipments similarly gained 9.3 cent on the year – more than the 3.7 per cent growth recorded in March. Non-monetary gold (80.4 per cent), structures of ships and boats (year-on-year growth rate of more than 1,000 per cent not cited due to low base effect) and specialised machinery (7.2 per cent) contributed the most to the increase.

Of Singapore’s top 10 markets, NODX to all but two destinations expanded.

Key exports to Indonesia (111.2 per cent), Taiwan (47.4 per cent) and South Korea (38.1 per cent) grew the most.

Meanwhile, NODX to Malaysia shrank 1 per cent in April, reversing from double-digit year-on-year growth in March. Key shipments to China fell by a steeper 17 per cent – but this was less than March’s 29.5 per cent year-on-year fall.

Overall, total trade rose 14.7 per cent from the corresponding year-ago period in April, accelerating from the 3.4 per cent growth in the preceding month. Total exports expanded 22.1 per cent, while total imports grew 7 per cent.