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Exports plummeting in Singapore, minus 17% in one year. An economic situation marked by the Sino-US conflict.
Normally, Singapore is one of the most competitive and successful economies in the world . But the country publishes calamitous results with exports down sharply, minus 17% year on year, and a GDP that contracted by 3.4% in the second quarter of the year. Results that serve as a thermometer for the state of health of the Asian and world economy.
Singapore is like the Cassandra of the world economy. When things go wrong, she speaks first. The peculiarity of this city-state is first of all to be a tax haven. But it is also to be ultra-dependent on its exports, which account for 180% of its gross domestic product, and which are directed to countries around the world.
A trade war that affects exports
If Singapore's economic situation deteriorates, it means that its partners are themselves in difficulty, or that they will soon be.
Starting with China, Singapore's largest trading partner with about 14% of trade. According to the French insurance company for foreign trade (COFACE), which assesses for companies the risks and economic conditions of countries, the trade war with the United States weakens China. This has a direct impact on Singapore's economy.
The decline in global electronics demand, over 13% of Singapore's exports, is also at stake. While the cause-and-effect relationship is, in economics, always multiple, the Sino-US trade war has begun to affect the exports of the whole sub-region: they have fallen very significantly in Singapore, but also in India, in Indonesia or in South Korea.