Macau’s balance of trade deficit recorded a 21 percent improvement in January due to a contraction of 1.579 billion patacas in goods imports, reported the region’s Statistics and Census Bureau.
In January Macau imported goods worth 6.956 billion patacas, against 9.493 billion patacas a year earlier, which together with an increase 1.5 percent in exports to 973 million patacas caused the trade deficit to contract from 7.576 billion patacas in January 2015 to 5.982 billion patacas this year.
The value of goods exported to mainland China (136 million patacas) and Hong Kong (634 million patacas) rose 8.9 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, compared to January 2015 but the goods sent to the European Union (17 million patacas) and the United States (11 million patacas) fell by 31.1 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively.
Imports of goods from mainland China and the European Union in the amount of 2.71 billion and 1.63 billion patacas, respectively, decreased by 21.4 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively, compared to the same month of last year.
In January the value of imports of mobile phones (692 million patacas), fuels and lubricants (434 million patacas) and building materials (209 million patacas) saw drops of 48.1 percent, 30.6 percent and 39.6 percent, respectively.
(macauhub)
