Macau’s imports of beauty, cosmetics and skin-care products rose by 51.5 percent to 4.8 billion patacas last year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
Mobile phone imports grew by 52.4 percent to 7.3 billion patacas. Gold jewellery increased by 13.4 percent to 7.6 billion patacas, while imports of watches rose by 25.6 percent to 6.5 billion patacas.
Food and beverage imports grew by 10.1 percent to 13.2 billion patacas, accounting for 14.7 percent of all imports last year. Foodstuff and beverages continued to be Macau’s number-one import item.
Total imports increased by 18.8 percent to 90.1 billion patacas. Total exports rose by 8.1 percent to 12.2 billion patacas, resulting in an external merchandise trade balance deficit of 77.9 billion patacas. While domestic exports fell by 14.3 percent to 1.5 billion patacas, re-exports rose by 12.3 percent to 10.7 billion patacas.
Last year, Hong Kong accounted for 62.1 percent of Macau’s exports, while 35 percent of the city’s imports originated from the Chinese mainland. Italy, France and Japan accounted for 8.6 percent, 8.4 percent and 8.1 percent respectively of Macau’s total value of imports in 2018.
