Minister Lim Hng Kiang's Written Reply to Parliament Question on Monthly Releases of Services Exports Data

​Question

Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry will consider monthly releases of services exports data so as to provide closer trend indicators as well as to help dampen the effects of fluctuations in monthly goods exports data.

Written Answer (attributed to Mr Lim Hng, Minister for Trade and Industry)

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: The Department of Statistics (DOS) currently compiles and releases estimates on services exports on a quarterly basis as part of Singapore’s Balance of Payments statistics. Merchandise exports data are compiled and released by IE Singapore on a monthly basis. The release of services exports data on a quarterly basis and merchandise exports data on a monthly basis is in accordance with the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

Merchandise export figures are compiled from administrative data collected from the customs declarations of traders. On the other hand, services export figures are based on surveys of companies, as there are no similar administrative records that can be tapped on.

To minimise compliance cost while keeping with international standards, MTI and DOS do not currently have plans to increase the frequency of surveys of companies to enable monthly compilation of services exports data.