Macao's trade deficit exceeds $1.6 billion in H1

Macao registered a trade deficit of 12.91 billion patacas (1.66 billion U.S. dollars) for the first half of 2008, with exports/imports ration decreasing from 47.6 percent of the same period of last year to 39.8 percent, according to the figures released Thursday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of the Special Administration Region (SAR).

The figures showed that total exports of goods fell by 10.7 percent year-on-year to 8.53 billion patacas (1.09 billion dollars)in the period, with the value of domestic exports and re-exports declining by 11.8 percent and 8.7 percent respectively, while total imports of goods grew by 6.9 percent to 21.45 billion patacas (2.75 billion dollars).

The value of textile and garment exports declined by 15.8 percent year-on-year and its relative importance decreased further to account for 59.9 percent of the total exports of goods in the first half year of 2008, according to the DSEC.

Meanwhile, the value of non-textile exports fell slightly by 1.7 percent, with exports of machines and apparatus, and footwear dropping by 50.8 percent and 56.3 percent respectively, while exports of image and sound appliances rose by 69.2 percent, according to the DSEC.

In the first half of 2008, Macao's value of exports to the United States, the Chinese Mainland and the European Union decreased by 6.3 percent, 40.3 percent and 40.5 percent respectively year-on-year, but that to Hong Kong rose by 23.6 percent, the DSEC said.

The DSEC figures also indicated that main suppliers of imported goods to Macao still concentrated in Asia. The value of imports from the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong SAR accounted for 51.9 percent of the total imports in the period.

Source:Xinhua