SG Morning Highlights | Singapore exports down 20.6 per cent in December in third straight month of contraction

Advancers / Decliners is 106 to 65, with 90.25 million securities worth S$112.48 million changing hands.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) contracted again in December, dragged by declines in non-electronic shipments and declining deliveries to most of the Republic's top 10 key markets, data from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) showed on Tuesday (Jan 17).

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in December tumbled 20.6 per cent year on year from a high year-ago base, extending the 14.7 per cent fall in the previous month and marking the third consecutive month of decline.

On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, NODX shrank by 3.3 per cent in December, extending the 9.2 per cent decline in the preceding month. Both electronic and non-electronic NODX contracted. On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the level of NODX was S$13.9 billion in December, lower than in November (S$14.3 billion), the same period a year ago (S$17.2 billion) and 2021’s average (S$16.1 billion).

Singapore and Uzbekistan will exchange a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during the state visit of Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said on Monday (Jan 16).

The two countries will look at fostering economic cooperation in "areas of mutual interest" such as education, food security, digitalisation, logistics, and urban planning.

Gan made the announcement at the Singapore-Uzbekistan Business Forum, co-organised by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Singaporeans' headline inflation expectations for the year ahead fell to 3.8 per cent in a December poll from an 11-year high of 4.6 per cent in September 2022, according to the latest quarterly results of the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (Sindex).

However, the fourth quarter one-year-ahead inflation expectations are still higher than the average one-year-ahead expectations of 3.2 per cent since inception in 2011.

The Sindex report, published on Monday (Jan 16) jointly by DBS and Singapore Management University (SMU), is derived from an online survey of 500 randomly selected individuals that represent a cross-section of Singaporean households.

Global employment growth is expected to slow down sharply to 1 per cent this year compared to 2 per cent in 2022, hit by the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine, high inflation and tighter monetary policy, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday (Jan 16).

At the same time, the number of unemployed people in the world is expected to rise by 3 million to 208 million in 2023, while inflation will eat into real wages, the ILO said in a report on global trends.

The scarcity of new jobs will hit countries at a time when many are still recovering from the economic shock of the global pandemic and the coronavirus is tearing through China after Beijing lifted tight lockdown restrictions.

Group passenger traffic and load factors remained robust across all route regions including East Asia, said SIA Group in a bourse filing on Monday (Jan 16).

In Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, the demand for air travel was boosted by the relaxation of travel restrictions.

The suspension will hold until certain measures have been taken to the satisfaction of MOM, ISOTeam said on Monday (Jan 16).

The unit is also barred from hiring new foreign workers for three months due to its poor risk controls.