Singapore's non-oil exports drop 7.9% in 1st half of 2002.

SINGAPORE, July 16 Kyodo

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports totaled $S46.6 billion (about $26.9 billion) in the first half of this year, down 7.9% from the same period last year, the government said Tuesday.

The pace of fall is slower than the second half of last year, when exports shriveled 24.2% year-on-year, International Enterprise Singapore, the national trade promotion agency, said in a statement.

The less severe decline was due primarily to smaller falls in all-important electronics exports as well as a marginal growth of non-electronics, the agency said.

Electronics exports, which make up about 60% of total non-oil trade and 50% of manufacturing input, contracted 13.1%, whereas non-electronics exports turned in a fractional growth of 0.4%.

Singapore, which is emerging from its worst economic downturn since 1965, is trying hard to turn the export-driven economy into one less reliant on electronics in favor of more knowledge-intensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals and health sciences.

The agency also said Singapore's non-oil domestic exports amounted to S$7.75 billion, down 0.4% from a year earlier, but marking a significant improvement from the previous month's drop of 6.5%.