“Singapore’s exports fell more than economists estimated in August as shipments of electronics dropped and companies sold fewer goods to Europe. The country’s currency weakened.

Non-oil domestic exports slid 10.6 percent from a year earlier, after a revised 5.7 percent increase in July, the trade promotion agency said in a statement today. The decline, the first since March, exceeded all 15 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey, where the median was for a 4 percent drop.

Europe’s protracted debt crisis, a U.S. jobless rate stuck above 8 percent and a slowdown in China are damping demand for Asian goods and commodities, prompting Hong Kong’s Trade Development Council to cut the island’s export forecast today. The weakening global outlook has prompted Singapore’s government to trim its 2012 economic growth forecast and may put pressure on the central bank to ease its monetary policy stance.”

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