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SINGAPORE, April 14 (Reuters) - Singapore's exports fell for the 11th straight month in March due to the global slowdown, but shipments to China rose for the second month running, offering signs that the world's third-largest economy may be headed for a recovery.
Non-oil exports fell 17 percent last month from a year earlier, after tumbling 23.8 percent in February and a record 34.9 percent plunge in January.
That and a record contraction in gross domestic product in the first quarter prompted the central bank to ease monetary policy to help the trade-dependent economy through the financial crisis. [ID:nSIN444077]
Shipments to China rose 14 percent in March to nearly S$1.5 billion ($991 million), making it Singapore's No. 2 trading partner after Europe and relegating the United States to third place. Total exports to China rose 8 percent in February and fell 51.6 percent in January.
"The 17 percent drop in trade is a sign that exports are bottoming up, and consistent with the picture we've seen in major regional exporters like South Korea and Taiwan. China has also turned around," said David Cohen at Action Economics in Singapore.
"Taken together, it seems that the first quarter will be the worst and things will start to get better. The trade data is certainly encouraging."
Data released last week showed that China's exports and imports fell 17.1 percent in March from year-earlier levels, down for the fifth month in a row, but the government and economists saw signs in the data that the contraction in trade flows may be peaking. [ID:nPEK8623]
Singapore's Non-electronic, non-oil exports to China rose 30 percent in March after a 24 percent increase in February, led by higher shipments of ships and boats, food preparation and primary chemicals, trade promotion agency IE Singapore said.
March exports, valued at S$11.9 billion rose a seasonally adjusted and annualised 10.8 percent from the previous month after a revised 1.6 percent increase in February.
The slump in global demand for exports from trade-dependent Singapore had prompted the economy to contract a record 11.5 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2009.
The country's gross domestic product in the first three months of the year fell at a seasonally adjusted, annualised pace of 19.7 percent. In the fourth quarter, the city state's economy contracted 4.2 percent from a year earlier and slumped 16.4 percent in annualised terms. (Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Jan Dahinten)