Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the financial tsunami has weakened the global economy, driving down external demand that caused the value of total merchandise exports of Macau to further decline. The value of total exports of goods amounted to MOP614 million in February 2009, down by 31.9% year-on-year, with the value of domestic exports plummeting by 57.8% to MOP220 million, but that of re-exports rising by 3.6% to MOP394 million. The value of total imports of goods amounted to MOP2.64 billion, down by 8.0% year-on-year. A trade deficit of MOP2.02 billion was recorded for February 2009.
From January to February 2009, total exports of goods fell by 48.3% year-on-year to MOP1.38 billion, with the value of domestic exports and re-exports declining by 63.3% and 17.5% respectively. Meanwhile, total imports of goods slid by 16.9% to MOP5.49 billion, and the trade deficit for the first two months of 2009 reached MOP4.11 billion. The exports/imports ratio went down by 15.3 percentage points year-on-year to 25.1%.
Analysed by the destinations of Macao’s exports, in the first two months of 2009, the value of merchandise exports to the USA, the EU and Mainland China decreased by 68.9%, 67.2% and 26.3% respectively year-on-year, but that to Hong Kong rose by 1.9%. As regards exports of principal commodities, the value of Textile & garment exports declined by 63.6% year-on-year to account for 43.8% of the total exports of goods in the first two months of 2009; meanwhile, the value of Non-textile exports dropped by 23.1%, with exports of Articles of copper falling by 63.1%, but exports of Jewellery rising by 33.2%.
Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, the value of imports from Mainland China and Hong Kong dropped by 40.7% and 11.5% respectively year-on-year. In terms of broad economic categories, the value of imports of all categories registered year-on-year decreases, of which Raw materials & semi-manufactures dropped by 36.3%, Fuels & lubricants fell by 25.0% and Capital goods slid by 20.3%.
