Singapore Exports Surge

Singapore’s exports grew at a surprisingly robust pace in May as shipments of items such as pharmaceuticals surged, outweighing the decline in electronics, Nikkei reported. Still, economists remained cautious about reading too much into the data released Monday by trade agency Enterprise Singapore. While the drug sector, where items are produced in batches, tends to be volatile, the external risks are also hardening for Singapore’s export-driven economy. Trade-related tensions between the US and its major partners have ratcheted up with the Donald Trump administration recently saying it would levy additional tariffs on as much as $50-billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing has responded with similar measures on US products. Although many observers say cooler heads are likely to prevail and a global trade war may not come to pass, there is the risk that businesses may become cautious and hold back on plans. In fact, Krystal Tan, an economist at Capital Economics, said that May’s robust numbers could have resulted from fears of a trade war that spurred companies to front-load orders before the imposition of tariffs. If this had occurred, it would begin to show in the data ahead, she said.