Singapore's imports and exports grew last year, 2023 trade growth expected to moderate

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s total merchandise trade - driven by both oil trade and non-oil trade - grew 17.7 per cent in 2022, shrinking from the 19.7 per cent rise the previous year.

Total merchandise trade reached S$1.4 trillion in 2022, compared with S$1.2 trillion in 2021 and S$969 billion in 2020, Enterprise Singapore said in a news release on Monday (Feb 13).

Enterprise Singapore attributed the increase in total merchandise trade to both oil and non-oil trade, with oil trade rising 47.5 per cent in 2022 amid higher oil prices a year ago, following a 43.6 per cent growth in the previous year.

Non-oil trade also grew by 11.9 per cent following a 15.9 per cent increase in 2021.

Total trade merchandise decreased by 1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, after seven quarters of expansion and following a 25.7 per cent in the previous quarter. During this period, oil trade grew by 14.1 per cent while non-oil trade decreased by 4.2 per cent.

Exports and imports both increased in 2022, by 15.6 per cent and 20.1 per cent respectively.

Non-oil exports (NOX), which include both non-oil domestic exports (NODX) and non-oil re-exports (NORX), rose 9.6 per cent year-on-year in 2022, following the previous year’s growth of 16.5 per cent.

NODX rose in 2022, mainly due to non-electronic exports.

Overall, NODX expanded 3 per cent in 2022, following a 12.1 per cent growth in 2021, due to higher shipments of both non-electronic and electronic products.

Demand for electronic products eased in 2022, growing 0.5 per cent as compared to 16.3 per cent in 2021. Integrated circuits (ICs), parts of ICs and disk drives contributed the most to this growth.

Demand for non-electronic products grew 3.8 per cent in 2022, following a 10.9 per