SINGAPORE - Singapore’s key exports expanded 22.2 per cent in October, beating expectations as electronics and non-electronics grew.

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

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

Shipments of electronic products rose 33.2 per cent in October, extending the 30.4 per cent rise in the previous month.

The rise came on the back of an 77.7 per cent surge in personal computer exports. Shipments grew 31.4 per cent for disk media products and 40.9 per cent for integrated circuits (ICs), or chips.

Non-electronics shipments, of which pharmaceuticals are a big part, expanded 18.8 per cent year on year in October, following the 0.5 per cent increase in the previous month.

The growth was led by an 176.8 per cent jump in non-monetary gold exports, a 25.2 per cent increase for pharmaceuticals and a 16.1 per cent rise for specialised machinery.

Nodx to Taiwan expanded 61.5 per cent, extending the 31.9 per cent rise in September, due to a 119.8 per cent jump in specialised machinery exports, a 30.7 per cent rise in ICs and a 289.1 per cent jump in disk media products.

Those to Thailand expanded 91.1 per cent in October, extending the 23.9 per cent growth in the previous month, as non-monetary gold exports jumped 844.6 per cent, while shipments in ICs increased 73.9 per cent and bare printed circuit boards were up 71.3 per cent.

Nodx to Hong Kong expanded 66.9 per cent in October, from the 56.3 per cent expansion in the previous month, on the back of a 93.3 per cent growth in shipments of ICs, while specialised machinery exports jumped 848.1 per cent and those of non-monetary gold were up 68.9 per cent.

Key exports to the United States, Singapore’s single largest export market, declined 12...