Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for December 2019 amounted to MOP1.10 billion, up by 5.1% year-on-year. Value of re-exports (MOP937 million) increased by 1.5%, with that of Footwear surging by 138.2% while that of Articles for casino tumbling by 91.9%. Value of domestic exports (MOP160 million) rose by 32.5%, with that of Garments soaring by 1,413.1% but that of Copper & articles thereof dropping by 21.3%. Total merchandise import grew by 12.1% year-on-year to MOP8.95 billion, of which imports of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products, Handbags & wallets and Gold jewellery expanded by 87.5%, 41.3% and 37.7% respectively; meanwhile, imports of Mobile phones, Watches and Fuels & lubricants declined by 45.4%, 4.7% and 4.1% respectively. Merchandise trade deficit in December totalled MOP7.85 billion.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, total value of merchandise export (MOP3.40 billion) and merchandise import (MOP26.22 billion) rose by 8.7% and 7.4% respectively year-on-year, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP22.81 billion.
For the whole year of 2019, total value of merchandise export increased by 5.0% year-on-year to MOP12.80 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP11.28 billion) grew by 5.8% but that of domestic exports (MOP1.51 billion) fell by 1.2%. Total value of merchandise import (MOP90.13 billion) held stable compared to 2018, of which imports of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products went up by 44.2% whereas imports of Mobile phones slid by 29.0%. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP77.33 billion in 2019, a decrease of MOP577 million from MOP77.91 billion in 2018.
Analysed by destination, merchandise export to mainland China dropped by 21.6% year-on-year to MOP1.58 billion in 2019, of which exports to the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP1.50 billion) declined by 23.4%. Exports to the EU (MOP197 million) fell by 5.7% year-on-year, whereas exports to Hong Kong (MOP8.16 billion) and the USA (MOP294 million) expanded by 7.8% and 127.7% respectively. Exports to the Belt and Road Countries (MOP354 million) increased by 33.3% year-on-year, while exports to the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP1 million) plunged by 94.8%. Exports of Textiles & garments totalled MOP1.06 billion, up by 53.5%. Exports of Non-textiles rose by 2.0% year-on-year to MOP11.73 billion, of which exports of Diamond & diamond jewellery (MOP895 million) grew by 62.6%, but exports of Articles for casino (MOP371 million) went down by 31.8%.
By place of origin, merchandise import from mainland China (MOP30.65 billion) decreased by 2.8% year-on-year in 2019. Meanwhile, imports from the EU (MOP24.92 billion), the Belt and Road Countries (MOP15.97 billion) and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP844 million) increased by 10.6%, 122.3% and 6.9% respectively. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise import from mainland China grew by 4.6% year-on-year to MOP14.31 billion, of which imports from the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP13.91 billion) rose by 5.0%. Imports of Consumer goods went up by 7.7% to MOP62.89 billion, with imports of Garments & footwear (MOP8.71 billion) and Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP7.02 billion) rising by 14.2% and 44.2% respectively. On the other hand, imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP7.14 billion), Mobile phones (MOP5.18 billion) and Construction materials (MOP1.70 billion) dropped by 2.0%, 29.0% and 14.7% respectively.
External merchandise trade totalled MOP102.93 billion in 2019, up by 0.6% compared with MOP102.30 billion in 2018.