SINGAPORE (May 25): Singapore's total trade tumbled 9.7% in 1Q of 2016 from last year, following the 7.7% decrease in the previous quarter, says IE Singapore this morning.

This was due to a on-year decline in both Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) and non-oil re-exports (NORX) during the quarter.

While NODX to Hong Kong and Japan expanded y-o-y, NODX to all the rest of the top markets decreased in 1Q 2016. The biggest contributors to the y-o-y NODX contraction in the quarter were China, Taiwan and the EU 28.

Specifically, NODX to China decreased by 14.6% in 1Q, after the previous quarter’s decline of 12.3%. NODX to the EU 28 decreased by 7.6%, following the 2.3% decline in the previous quarter.

IE Singapore says global economic outlook has weakened since early 2016, with the IMF downgrading its global growth forecast for 2016 from 3.4% to 3.2% in its latest April 2016 World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.

Growth momentum in the US economy has also slowed in recent months, while the Chinese economy is projected to ease further in 2016.

Moreover, persistently low oil prices are expected to continue to dampen oil trade in nominal terms.

“Taking these factors and the year-to-date performance of NODX and total trade into consideration, the 2016 projections for NODX and total trade have been revised downwards to between -5.0 and -3.0%, and -8.0 and -6.0% respectively,” says the government agency driving Singapore’s external economy.