S’pore key exports surge 22% in October amid strong AI demand

Economists raise export forecasts despite possible US tariffs on semiconductors

- Sheila Chiang Business Correspondent

Singapore's key exports accelerated much more than expected in October amid booming global demand for chips and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Following the outperformance, economists raised their full-year export forecasts while acknowledging the Republic still faces the risk of US President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on now-exempt semiconductors going into 2026.

They also noted that demand from other Asian countries is more than offsetting declines from the United States.

Non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) expanded 22.2 per cent from a year ago, after a revised 7 per cent expansion in September, data from Enterprise Singapore on Nov 17 showed.

The figure is well above the 7.5 per cent rise forecast by economists in a Bloomberg poll.

UOB associate economist Jester Koh noted that Singapore’s Nodx has risen 4.1 per cent year to date, putting it on track to surpass the official full-year estimate of 1 per cent to 3 per cent growth.

He added that the Government may raise its estimate on Nov 21 in tandem with the release of the final third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) reading. UOB tips GDP to have grown 4 per cent year on year in the July to September quarter, higher than the 2.9 per cent official advance estimate.

OCBC Bank chief economist Selena Ling said the bank upgraded its full-year Nodx growth forecast to 4 per cent. “If our 4 per cent Nodx growth forecast materialises, this is a huge improvement from 0.2 per cent growth in 2024 and would mark the fastest pace since 2021 (12.1 per cent),” she said.