Macau’s watch imports jumped 65 percent year-on-year to 4.28 billion patacas, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced Thursday. Watch imports accounted for nearly 10 percent of the total value of imports.
Gold jewellery imports rose 35 percent to 5.2 billion patacas. Gold jewellery accounted for nearly 12 percent of all imports between January and June.
Mobile phone imports increased 10 percent to 3.06 billion patacas.
In the first six months, handbags and wallets worth 1.87 billion patacas were imported, unchanged from a year earlier.
Gold jewellery, watches, mobile phones and handbags are particularly popular for shoppers from the mainland.
Total imports rose 14 percent to 48.5 billion patacas, while total exports increased 10 percent to 5.03 billion patacas, resulting in a merchandise trade balance deficit of 38.4 billion patacas.
Re-exports accounted for 80.7 percent of all exports.
Most goods were imported from the mainland (32 percent), Hong Kong (11 percent), Switzerland (10 percent), France (nine percent) and Italy (seven percent). Three quarters of Macau’s exports went to Hong Kong and the mainland.
(macaunews/macaupost)
