India 12th top trade partner for Singapore

Singapore, July 17 (UNI) India remained Singapore's 12th top trading partner with trade growing by 13.7 per cent to 9.22 billion Singapore dollars in the first half of this year, as against 16.61 billion dollars for the whole of last year, according to official data released today said.

Singapore's export to India grew by 6.4 per cent to 1.9 billion dollars in the January-June 2006 period, setting a trend of further improvement in exports compared with 3.66 billion dollars for the whole of 2005, said the International Enterprise Singapore.

India was ahead of the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam but behind Malaysia, the European Union, the US, China, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Australia.

Overall, Singapore's total trade grew by a stronger 19 per cent to reach 394 billion dollars in the first half of this year, boosted by a 16 per cent increase in non-oil trade.

''In view of the stronger than expected trade performance in first half of 2006 and external demand likely to remain firm in the second half of the year, we have revised upwards the projection for total trade growth in 2006 to a range between 13 and 15 per cent,'' it said.

The agency had previously forecast trade growth of eight to 10 per cent.

Oil trade also expanded by 34 per cent in first half of 2006, mainly due to sustained high oil prices, it said.

Non-oil domestic exports increased by 16 per cent in first half of 2006, almost double the 8.2 per cent posted in 2005 due to faster growth in electronic and non-electronic exports, said the trade agency.

Domestic exports of electronic and non-electronic goods expanded by 15 per cent and 17 per cent respectively in first half of as compared to the corresponding 3.9 per cent and 13 per cent growth in 2005.

UNI XC VJ KN1915