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Macao trade deficit up 4.2% in Jan-Oct

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-01 13:46

Macao registered a trade deficit of 23.26 billion patacas ($2.94 billion) in the first ten months of 2009, an increase of 4.2 percent over the same period of last year, according to the figures released on Monday by the region's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

From January to October, total value of local merchandise exports dropped significantly by 54.7 percent year-on-year to 6.36 billion patacas, of which the value of domestic exports and re-exports declined by 69.7 percent and 31.7 percent respectively, while that of merchandise imports slid by 18. 5 percent to 29.62 billion patacas, the DSEC figures indicated.

As a result, the exports/imports ratio went down by 17.1 percentage points year-on-year to 21.5 percent in the period. Analyzed by destination of Macao's exports, the value of merchandise exports to the United States, the EU and the Chinese mainland respectively decreased by 79.6 percent, 59.5 percent and 45.4 percent year-on-year in this period.

The value of Textile and garment exports declined by 73.1 percent year-on-year to account for 34.6 percent of the total exports of goods, while the value of Non-textile exports dropped by 29.1 percent.

Regarding the origin of imported goods, the value of merchandise imports from the Chinese mainland dropped by 37.1 percent year-on-year, but that from the EU rose by 5.1 percent.

The value of imports by Broad economic category registered year- on-year decrease, of which Raw materials and semi-manufactures and Fuels and lubricants fell by 40.4 percent and 25.3 percent respectively, while the value of imports of Consumer goods recorded a mild decrease of 5.2 percent, according to the DSEC.