Macau’s imports of handbags and wallets, which are particularly popular with visitors from the mainland, dropped 26.5 percent year-on-year to 526 million patacas in the first two months of the year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
Gold jewellery imports decreased 30.9 percent to 1.4 billion patacas in January and February. Watch imports fell 6.4 percent to 1.2 billion patacas.
However, mobile phone imports leapt 54.3 percent to 2.03 billion patacas. Mobile phones were Macau’s number-two import item after food and beverage imports which rose 17.9 percent to 2.14 billion patacas in the first two months.
Total exports fell 0.1 percent to 1.6 billion patacas. Re-exports accounted for 80.9 percent of all exports. Some 77.4 percent of Macau’s exports went to Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan.
Imports rose 4.3 percent to 15.1 billion patacas, resulting in a trade balance deficit of 13.5 billion patacas. Some 34.1 percent of all imports originated from the mainland.
(macaunews/macaupost)
