Macau imported watches worth 3.47 billion patacas in the first eight months of this year, a 46.7 percent increase on the same period last year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
Watch imports exceeded those of cars and scooters that reached 2.14 billion patacas between January and August, a year-on-year growth of 49.2 percent.
Gold jewellery imports rose 33.7 percent year-on-year to 4.9 billion patacas in the eight-month period. The import of handbags and wallets reached 2.5 billion patacas, up 23.1 percent.
Mobile phone imports grew 48 percent to 3.8 billion patacas.
Retail store owners say that gold jewellery, watches, handbags and mobile phones are the most popular items of shoppers from mainland China.
Macau’s total exports rose 19.4 percent to 5.4 billion patacas in the first eight months. Re-exports accounted for 70.8 percent of all exports. While domestic exports grew just 0.1 percent, re-exports were up 29.7 percent.
The city’s imports grew 19.6 percent to 46.49 billion patacas, resulting in an external merchandise trade deficit of 41.1 billion patacas. Consumer goods accounted for 61 percent of Macau’s total imports.
Mainland China, the 27-nation European Union, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Japan and the US continued to be Macau’s main suppliers of goods.
Most of Macau’s exports were shipped to Hong Kong, the mainland, the US and the EU.(macaunews)
