Singapore, India trade down 15.9% in 2012

SINGAPORE: The bilateral trade between India and Singapore fell by 15.9 per cent to SGD 29.8 billion (USD 24.05 billion) last year from 35.43 billion Singaporean dollar (SGD) in 2011, trade promotion agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said today.

India, ranked 11 among Singapore's top 15 trading partners, accounting for 3 per cent of Singapore's total trade of SGD 984.9 billion in 2012, IE said.

The total trade of Singapore rose by 1.1 per cent in 2012 but was lower than previously projected range of between 3 per cent and 4 per cent due to the poor trade performance in the fourth quarter, it said.

It added that the global economic crisis also impacted the Singapore-India trade.

Singapore's total exports declined marginally by 0.9 per cent while imports grew by 3.2 per cent during the year.

Non-oil trade increased by 1.7 per cent while oil trade contracted by 0.4 per cent, it said.

Meanwhile, the Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said it was maintaining economic growth forecast at 1 per cent to 3 per cent for this year.

Singapore recorded a Gross Domestic Product growth of 1.3 per cent last year, mainly due to weakness in the externally- oriented sectors.

The Ministry said the global economic growth was likely to remain subdued during this year.

The global macroeconomic conditions have stabilised in recent months against the backdrop of improved financial market conditions, it said.

While the US housing market has shown signs of improvement, the strength of the economic recovery would be restrained by fiscal tightening, the Ministry added.

The euro-zone economic growth was expected to remain stagnant, weighed down by ongoing fiscal tightening, private sector deleveraging, as well as high unemployment rates.

In Asia, growth was likely to be moderate, supported by resilient domestic demand and modest growth in external demand, the Ministry said.