Singapore: Export sector starts the year on a strong note – UOB

Economist at UOB Group Barnabas Gan evaluates the latest figures from the exports sector in Singapore.

Key Takeaways

“Singapore’s NODX recorded an 17.6% y/y expansion in Jan 2022, beating market expectations for a milder growth of 12.4% y/y. On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX gained 5.0% in the same month.”

“For the whole of 2022, Enterprise Singapore has kept its forecast unchanged for both total trade and NODX to expand by between 0% and 2.0%. As cited in Enterprise Singapore’s (ESG) press release ‘Review of 2021 Trade Performance’, ‘the pace of growth (in 2022) is expected to moderate from the high base in 2021’. Note that total trade and NODX rose 15.9% and 12.1% respectively in 2021.”

“Singapore is well-positioned to ride the endemic-COVID-19 recovery into 2022. For the year ahead, Singapore would have to contend with new waves of COVID-19 infections, as well as a high growth base in the previous year. As such, we keep our NODX outlook to expand by a modest 2.0% with upside risks.”