Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for February 2019 amounted to MOP923 million, up by 29.1% year-on-year. Value of re-exports (MOP848 million) increased by 37.9%, with that of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products and Diamond & diamond jewellery surging by 968.3% and 251.2% respectively. Meanwhile, value of domestic exports (MOP75 million) dropped by 24.9%, with that of Pharmaceutical products & organic chemicals falling by 34.5%. Total merchandise import fell by 12.3% year-on-year to MOP5.67 billion, of which imports of Construction materials, Gold jewellery and Handbags & wallets declined by 33.1%, 32.6% and 26.3% respectively, but imports of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products rose by 25.1%. Merchandise trade deficit in February amounted to MOP4.75 billion.
From January to February 2019, total value of merchandise export increased by 26.2% year-on-year to MOP2.45 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP2.24 billion) grew by 31.8%, but that of domestic exports (MOP215 million) declined by 12.2%. Total value of merchandise import fell by 1.5% year-on-year to MOP14.62 billion. Merchandise trade deficit widened to MOP12.16 billion for the first two months of 2019.
Analysed by destination, merchandise export to Mainland China decreased by 18.6% year-on-year to MOP265 million from January to February 2019, of which exports to the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP255 million) declined by 19.9%. Meanwhile, exports to Hong Kong (MOP1.76 billion), the USA (MOP35 million) and the EU (MOP23 million) grew by 43.1%, 82.3% and 7.8% respectively. Exports to the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP0.25 million) jumped by 1,495.6% year-on-year, while exports to the Belt & Road Countries outside of Greater China (MOP30 million) dropped by 30.2%. Exports of Non-textiles went up by 26.0% year-on-year to MOP2.32 billion, of which value of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP104 million) soared by 436.5%, but that of Milk powder (MOP23 million) declined by 83.3%. Exports of Textiles & garments totalled MOP129 million, up by 29.9%.
By place of origin, merchandise import from Mainland China (MOP4.92 billion) decreased by 2.5% year-on-year in the first two months of 2019, whereas imports from the EU (MOP4.15 billion) increased by 9.5%. Meanwhile, imports from the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP160 million) and the Belt & Road Countries outside of Greater China (MOP1.36 billion) rose by 18.3% and 6.7% respectively. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise import from Mainland China grew by 2.8% year-on-year to MOP2.00 billion, of which imports from the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP1.93 billion) rose by 2.2%. Imports of Consumer goods went up by 8.6% to MOP10.40 billion, with imports of Garments & footwear (MOP1.65 billion) and Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP984 million) rising by 34.6% and 32.8% respectively; in addition, imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP1.04 billion) grew by 2.1%, whereas imports of Mobile phones (MOP1.06 billion) and Construction materials (MOP203 million) dropped by 29.4% and 41.7% respectively.
External merchandise trade totalled MOP17.07 billion from January to February 2019, up by 1.7% compared with MOP16.78 billion a year earlier.