MACAU, December 27 - Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise exports and imports amounted to MOP1.15 billion and MOP11.49 billion respectively in November 2024, down by 17.3% and 7.8% year-on-year. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP10.34 billion. From January to November 2024, total value of merchandise exports rose by 1.7% year-on-year to MOP12.46 billion, while total value of merchandise imports dropped by 9.1% to MOP117.70 billion. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP105.23 billion in the first eleven months, down by MOP12.04 billion from the same period last year (MOP117.27 billion).

In comparison with November 2023, value of re-exports fell by 18.4% to MOP1.04 billion in November this year, of which re-exports of Articles for casino and Wine slid by 91.4% and 50.1% respectively, while those of Garments and Watches surged by 105.0% and 84.6% respectively. Value of domestic exports dropped by 5.5% to MOP112 million, of which domestic exports of Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits & other bakers' wares and Copper & articles thereof decreased by 35.5% and 13.7% respectively, while those of Garments and Pharmaceutical products & organic chemicals grew by 10.4% and 2.4% respectively. Meanwhile, total merchandise imports dipped by 7.8% year-on-year; imports of Construction materials, Perfumes and Beauty, cosmetic & skincare products reduced by 51.6%, 50.0% and 41.5% respectively, whereas imports of Articles for casino and Mobile phones showed respective growth of 31.2% and 27.2%.

External merchandise trade totalled MOP130.16 billion from January to November 2024, down by 8.2% compared to the same period last year (MOP141.77 billion). Total value of merchandise exports rose by 1.7% year-on-year, of which value of re-exports (MOP11.11 billion) increased by 2.5% while value of domestic exports (MOP1.36 billion) decreased by 4.4%. Total value of merchandise imports declined by 9.1% year-on-year.

Analysed by destination, merchandise exports to the Belt and Road Countries (MOP649 million) and the EU (MOP190 million) expanded by 19.8% and 40.7% respectively year-on-year in the first eleven months of 2024, whereas exports to mainland China (MOP697 million), the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR) (MOP8.88 billion) and the USA (MOP277 million) dropped by 21.5%, 1.1% and 32.0% respectively. Analysed by commodity, exports of Textiles & garments grew by 15.5% year-on-year to MOP1.43 billion, and exports of Non-textiles edged up by 0.2% to MOP11.04 billion.

By place of origin, merchandise imports from mainland China (MOP35.95 billion), the EU (MOP34.31 billion) and the Belt and Road Countries (MOP26.74 billion) decreased by 2.5%, 16.5% and 5.6% respectively year-on-year in the first eleven months of 2024, while those from Japan (MOP8.33 billion) increased by 5.3%. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise imports from mainland China (MOP19.25 billion) grew by 2.4% year-on-year, whereas imports from the Hong Kong SAR (MOP92.02 billion) fell by 12.3%. In terms of commodity, imports of Consumer goods went down by 14.7% to MOP83.13 billion, of which imports of Food & beverages (MOP19.92 billion), Garments & footwear (MOP11.65 billion) and Gold jewellery (MOP9.45 billion) shrank by 8.3%, 3.6% and 27.8% respectively. Imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP7.32 billion) rose by 11.0%, whereas imports of Mobile phones (MOP4.13 billion) and Construction materials (MOP1.89 billion) dropped by 17.9% and 32.7% respectively.