Finance news

Singapore’s exports dropped the least in eight months in May, adding to signs the worst global recession since the Great Depression is easing.

Non-oil domestic exports fell 12.1 percent from a year earlier, after contracting 19.2 percent in April, the trade promotion agency said in a statement today. Economists had expected an 11.7 percent decline.

Singapore’s government said last month the nation may have “hit the bottom” of its deepest recession since independence in 1965. Factory production fell at the slowest pace in seven months in April, boosting economists’ expectations the export collapse may also ease as manufacturers start rebuilding stockpiles in anticipation of improving demand.

“We are still in the midst of a bottoming out in the global economy and there will be better visibility of a recovery towards the end of the year,” said Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore. “We aren’t seeing very strong demand from consumers but demand from producers is significantly better on the back of restocking.”

The Bank of Japan today raised its assessment of the economy for a second month and said the situation has stopped worsening after exports improved and factory output climbed at the fastest pace in 56 years. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said June 9 that the “global storm” is showing signs of receding.

A rally in world equity markets has added more than $11 trillion to the value of global stocks since this year’s low on March 9 everyone approved 1 hour payday loans.

Manufacturing Expands

Singapore’s purchasing managers’ index showed manufacturing expanded in May for the first time in nine months. Export orders climbed last month, according to a June 2 report by the Singapore Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management.

“While trade is still expected to be weak for the rest of 2009, further declines of the magnitude seen earlier this year seem unlikely,” the government said last month.

Singapore’s non-oil exports rose a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent last month from April, when they slid a revised 1.4 percent, today’s report showed. Economists had expected a 1.4 percent increase.

Electronics shipments plunged 21.8 percent in May from a year earlier, the 28th consecutive drop, following a 25.6 percent decline in April. Sales of electronics products by companies including Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. were worth S$3.89 billion ($2.7 billion) last month.

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, fell 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier. Pharmaceutical shipments rose 40.2 percent.

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