S\\\'pore external trade rises 0.9pc in Sept

SINGAPORE, Oct 18 (Xinhua): Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX), a key gauge of the export performance of the small and highly open economy, rose by 0.9 per cent in September on year, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said on Friday.

The gain was due to an increase in non-electronic exports which outweighed the decline in electronic exports. The agency said the rise came after a 6 per cent expansion in the previous month.

On a yearly basis, electronic exports contracted by 4.0 per cent in September, after the 6.9 per cent decline in the previous month. The decrease was largely due to parts of PCs, ICs and disk drives.

Non-electronic exports expanded by 3.0 per cent on-year in September, following the 12.1 per cent rise in the previous month, led by petrochemicals, specialised machinery and primary chemicals.

NODX to all of the top 10 markets, except China's Hong Kong, Japan, the EU and Indonesia, rose in September. The top three contributors to the NODX increase in September were China, Taiwan of China and Malaysia.