SINGAPORE (AFP) - - Singapore's main exports fell 19.2 percent year on year in April, government data released Monday showed, as the city-state struggles to find a way out of its worst recession in decades.

Shipments of electronics extended their sharp fall from March and petrochemicals accelerated their decline to weigh down a strong showing by pharmaceuticals, the figures showed.

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) totalled 11.32 billion Singapore dollars in April, the trade development agency International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said.

NODX was down 17.3 percent in March and 23.8 percent in February. Global demand for Asian exports, including goods from Singapore, has been dwindling as the economic crisis forces consumers to tighten their belts.

IE Singapore said April's decline was "due to contractions in both electronic and non-electronic" exports.

"The bottom line, together with the China, Taiwan and South Korean data, is that Singapore's April NODX data is a reminder that the road to recovery is a bumpy one," said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist at CIMB-GK Research.

Electronics exports tumbled 25.6 percent in April, almost identical to the March decline, largely due to lower demand for personal computer parts, integrated circuits and disc drives.

But shipments of pharmaceuticals, another major export, surged 41.16 percent, reversing a 3.8 percent shrinkage in March.

However, this was not enough to turn exports around as petrochemicals dived 39.2 percent in April, following a 31.6 percent fall the previous month.

"If not for a strong pharma showing, overall NODX would have declined by a larger magnitude," Song said.

Exports to Singapore's top 10 overseas markets declined, notably to the European Union, to which shipments contracted 31 percent from 24 percent in March, and the United States which fell 35 percent after a 31 percent drop in March.

Song said this highlighted the "still fragile state of global demand" for exports.

Total trade in April reached 58.84 billion dollars, down 28.5 percent year on year.

Singapore fell into recession in the third quarter last year as the global downturn sparked by the collapse of the US sub-prime, or risky, mortgage market intensified and spilled over into the larger economy.

The country's trade-dependent economy is expected to shrink by between 6.0 and 9.0 percent this year as the country grapples with its worst economic downturn since independence 44 years ago.

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