Singapore's non-oil domestic exports in June fell 10.5 percent to S$12.8 billion from a year ago with sharp declines in shipments to key markets such as the United States, Europe and China, the International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said on Thursday.

The decline was the same as the previous month's fall but came in worse than analysts' forecast of a 6.7 percent drop, as exports of electronics and pharmaceuticals continued to slump.

Electronics exports fell 14.6 percent in June from a year ago as demand for semiconductor chips, disk drives and consumer electronics products tanked, IE Singapore said. Pharmaceutical exports, meanwhile, slid down 22.3 percent.

Seven out of the city-state's 10 major markets registered declines in shipments, led by the 24 percent fall in exports to the United States, which is suffering from a housing slump and credit crisis. Exports to Europe declined 16 percent and were down 12 percent to China.

Shipments to Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong, meanwhile, were marginally higher, ranging from 0.5 to 12.0 percent.

"This indicated weakness in external demand, which highlights the risk to exports numbers," said Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB-GK Research. "We should be prepared for even more ugly export numbers in the coming months," he said.

Seasonally-adjusted, June non-oil domestic exports grew 4.2 percent from the previous month, reversing a 9.8 percent monthly decline in May but lower than the 5.0 percent growth forecast of economists polled by Thomson IFR.

The weak external demand will exert a significant drag on Singapore's manufacturing sector, which accounts for about a third of the city-state's economy.

"The hit of manufacturing momentum could well go into the third quarter," said Standard Chartered economist Alvin Liew.

The city-state's gross domestic product grew at a much slower annual pace of 1.9 percent in the second quarter from 6.9 percent in the first due to a slump in biomedical production, declining 6.6 percent from the first, based on the government's advance estimate.

Liew warned the Singapore economy may enter its first technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, in six years.

($1=S$1.34)