Taiwan and the EU were also weak spots.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports declined at a faster pace in the first quarter on back of persistently weak demand from key trading partners. Statistics from IE Singapore showed that overall NODX contracted by 9% year-on-year in Q1, following the previous quarter's decrease of 3.5%.

Both electronic and non-electronic exports declined during the quarter. While shipments to Hong Kong and Japan expanded on a year-on-year basis, NODX to all the rest of the top markets decreased during the period. The biggest contributors to the contraction were China, Taiwan and the European Union, IE Singapore said.

Meanwhile, total trade dropped by 9.7% in the first quarter, followign the 7.7% decrease in the previous quarter.

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