Trade | Imports keep upward trend

The total value of imported merchandise for October 2017 rose by 3.6 percent year-on-year to MOP6.25 billion.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise trade deficit in October amounted to MOP5.44 billion.

From January to October 2017, the total value of imported merchandise went up by 4.7 percent year-on-year to MOP60.50 billion.

The merchandise trade deficit widened to MOP51.13 billion for the first 10 months of 2017.

Meanwhile, the value of exported merchandise in October amounted to MOP806 million, up by 6.1 percent year-on-year; the value of re-exports (MOP686 million) increased by 11 percent.

Value of domestic exports (MOP120 million) slid by 15.1 percent, with that of glass and glassware falling by 88.4 percent.

From January to October 2017, the total value of exported merchandise increased by 10.3 percent year-on-year to MOP9.37 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP7.9 billion) grew by 15.1 percent, but that of domestic exports (MOP1.46 billion) declined by 10 percent.

Merchandise exported to mainland China increased by 21.1 percent year-on-year to MOP1.78 billion in the first 10 months of 2017, of which exports to the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP1.58 billion) grew by 14.1 percent.

Merchandise imported from mainland China (MOP19.94 billion) and the Portuguese-speaking countries (MOP521 million) decreased by 5.7 percent and 3.9 percent respectively year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2017.

Imports from the European Union (MOP15.54 billion) increased by 12.4 percent.

Analyzed by place of consignment, merchandise imported from mainland China shrank by 2.1 percent to MOP9.74 billion, of which imports from the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP9.27 billion) fell by 1.2 percent. Imports of consumer goods went up by 11.0 percent to MOP39.97 billion.

External merchandise trade totaled MOP69.87 billion in the first 10 months of 2017, up by 5.4 percent compared with MOP66.27 billion a year earlier.