Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that external merchandise trade totalled MOP11.90 billion in January 2025, down by 11.2% compared with MOP13.40 billion a year earlier. Total value of merchandise exports rose by 0.3% year-on-year to MOP1.13 billion, while total value of merchandise imports dropped by 12.2% to MOP10.77 billion. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP9.64 billion in January.
In comparison with January 2024, value of re-exports grew by 1.7% to MOP1.00 billion in January this year, of which re-exports of Perfumes and Wine leapt by 213.5% and 90.8% respectively, while those of Articles for casino and Watches decreased by 29.6% and 15.3% respectively. Value of domestic exports dropped by 9.5% to MOP127 million, of which domestic exports of Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits & other bakers' wares and Pharmaceutical products & organic chemicals slid by 41.0% and 24.8% respectively, while those of Garments and Copper & articles thereof increased by 30.2% and 12.3% respectively.
Analysed by destination, merchandise exports to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR) (MOP841 million), the EU (MOP26 million) and the Belt and Road Countries (MOP26 million) expanded by 3.8%, 15.9% and 16.0% respectively year-on-year in January 2025, whereas exports to mainland China (MOP52 million) and the USA (MOP25 million) dropped by 32.3% and 11.7% respectively. As regards commodity, exports of Textiles & garments grew by 15.5% year-on-year to MOP122 million, while exports of Non-textiles went down by 1.3% to MOP1.01 billion.
Total merchandise imports recorded a year-on-year drop of 12.2% in January. By place of origin, merchandise imports from the EU (MOP3.46 billion), mainland China (MOP3.20 billion) and the Belt and Road Countries (MOP2.43 billion) reduced by 9.3%, 11.7% and 8.7% respectively year-on-year, while those from Japan (MOP688 million) increased by 3.0%. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise imports from mainland China (MOP1.61 billion) and the Hong Kong SAR (MOP8.64 billion) showed respective decreases of 20.0% and 10.3% year-on-year. In terms of commodity, imports of Consumer goods went down by 9.6% to MOP8.29 billion, of which imports of Food & beverages (MOP2.10 billion), Garments & footwear (MOP1.17 billion) and Gold jewellery (MOP1.17 billion) shrank by 4.6%, 10.9% and 3.0% respectively. Imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP604 million) rose by 8.2%, whereas imports of Mobile phones (MOP217 million) and Construction materials (MOP131 million) declined by 44.9% and 53.7% respectively.