Statistics | Motor cars, watches imports cut in half

Total merchandise import amounted to MOP5.4 billion for May 2016, according to new data released by the Statistics and Census Service, down by 21 percent year-on-year, of which imports of motor cars and watches dropped by 49.7 percent and 48.9 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the total merchandise export for the month was down by 5.1 percent year-on-year to MOP832 million, with the value of re-exports (MOP678 million) and domestic exports (MOP154 million) declining 5.6 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.
Therefore the merchandise trade deficit amounted to MOP4.57 billion in May, while the deficit for the first five months of 2016 widened to MOP23.75 billion.
By place of origin, merchandise import from mainland China (MOP10.34 billion) and the EU (MOP6.53 billion) in the first five months of 2016 decreased by 22.4 percent and 20.5 percent respectively year-on-year.
Analyzed by place of consignment, merchandise import from mainland China declined by 9.9 percent to MOP4.53 billion in the same period, of which imports from the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta region (MOP4.3 billion) fell by about 10 percent.
Imports of consumer goods dropped 17.4 percent in the January-May period to MOP17.42 billion, with imports of watches (MOP1.65 billion) and motor vehicles (MOP529 million) decreasing by 42.3 percent and 53 percent respectively.
Moreover, imports of fuels and lubricants (MOP2.29 billion), mobile phones (MOP1.98 billion) and construction materials (MOP894 million) declined by 18.8 percent, 50.5 percent and 31.9 percent respectively.
As for exports analyzed by destination in the first five months of 2016, merchandise export to mainland China increased by 5.6 percent year-on-year to MOP711 million, of which exports to the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta region (MOP676 million) rose by 4.5 percent while exports to Hong Kong (MOP2.56 billion) decreased by 9.2 percent.
External merchandise trade totaled MOP32.32 billion in the first five months of 2016, down by 20.1 percent compared with MOP40.43 billion a year earlier.