Singapore’s exports rose at a slower pace in December, ending a year in which shipments jumped the most since 2003 as the global economic recovery boosted demand for the island’s goods.

Non-oil domestic exports climbed 9.4 percent from a year earlier, after a revised 9.9 percent gain in November, the trade promotion agency said in a statement in Singapore Monday. The median forecast of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for an increase of 11.1 percent. Shipments rose about 23 percent in 2010, the most in seven years, according to Bloomberg’s calculation using previously reported data.

Asian economies led a global recovery last year that’s been restrained by sovereign credit woes in Europe and a U.S. job market where unemployment has exceeded 9 percent since May 2009. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government expects economic growth to ease this year after a record 14.7 percent expansion in 2010. 

(Bloomberg)