Phones saving grace as exports to US drop 8.59%

OVERALL MERCHANDISE EXPORTS to the US fell 8.59% on-year to $6.30 billion.

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The data showed that all labour-intensive sectors reported a sharp decline in exports to the biggest market. The trend is a repeat of the September performance, the first full month when the full force of additional tariffs was felt. The 50% duties became effective from August 27.

Telecom instruments, mostly comprising smartphones, saw an increase of 204.3% on-year to $1.50 billion. The biggest export sector to the US -- engineering goods — sawa decline of 14.5% on-year to $1.39 billion in October. In April-October engineering sector exports to the US were up 4.7% to $11.43 billion as orders were pushed early to beat the tariff deadline.