Singapore’s export growth unexpectedly accelerated as sales of electronics and pharmaceuticals rebounded.

Non-oil domestic exports climbed 31.2% from a year earlier, after a revised 18.3% gain in July, the trade promotion agency said in a statement in Singapore today. That’s the fastest pace since December 2005, according to previously reported data. The median forecast of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for an increase of 16.2%.

 

Singapore is in the running to be the world’s fastest- growing economy in 2010 after expanding a record 17.9% in the first six months of the year. Still, overseas demand, which has lifted export-dependent Asian economies including Singapore and China, may falter as cooling global growth threatens orders for Creative Technology Ltd.’s music players and Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.’s shipping services.

 

“Leading indicators are pointing toward slower export activities ahead,” Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings in Singapore, said before the report. “The purchasing manager indices across key markets are also tapering off as companies are holding back their purchases in anticipation of slower demand ahead.”

 

Electronics shipments by companies including Venture Corp., Singapore’s biggest publicly traded electronics contract manufacturer, climbed 34.9% in August from a year earlier to $6.08 billion, after a 25.7% gain the previous month.