Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise export for September 2019 amounted to MOP1.02 billion, up by 9.2% year-on-year. Value of re-exports (MOP883 million) increased by 8.3%, with that of Wine, Electronic components and Articles for casino soaring by 125.3%, 62.6% and 42.2% respectively. Value of domestic exports (MOP138 million) grew by 15.3%, with that of Garments surging by 785.5%. Total merchandise import edged down by 0.1% year-on-year to MOP7.55 billion, of which imports of Motor cars & motorcycles, Mobile phones and Gold jewellery dropped by 25.2%, 17.6% and 7.8% respectively; meanwhile, imports of Construction materials, Handbags & wallets and Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products increased by 47.8%, 37.3% and 26.7% respectively. Merchandise trade deficit in September totalled MOP6.53 billion.

In the third quarter of 2019, total value of merchandise export (MOP2.99 billion) rose by 4.3% year-on-year, but that of merchandise import (MOP22.10 billion) dropped by 1.9%, resulting in a trade deficit of MOP19.11 billion.

From January to September 2019, total value of merchandise export increased by 3.6% year-on-year to MOP9.39 billion, of which value of re-exports (MOP8.33 billion) grew by 5.4% but that of domestic exports (MOP1.07 billion) declined by 8.1%. Total value of merchandise import fell by 2.5% year-on-year to MOP64.07 billion. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP54.68 billion for the first nine months of 2019, a decrease of MOP1.95 billion from MOP56.63 billion a year earlier.

Analysed by destination, merchandise export to mainland China dropped by 23.0% year-on-year to MOP1.19 billion from January to September 2019, of which exports to the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP1.14 billion) declined by 24.3%. Exports to the EU (MOP142 million) fell by 3.9% year-on-year, whereas exports to Hong Kong (MOP6.07 billion) and the USA (MOP181 million) expanded by 7.9% and 88.3% respectively. Meanwhile, exports to the Belt and Road Countries (MOP183 million) and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP1 million) showed respective decreases of 2.8% and 95.0%. Exports of Textiles & garments totalled MOP758 million, up by 44.2%. Exports of Non-textiles went up by 1.2% year-on-year to MOP8.64 billion, of which value of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP435 million) jumped by 131.2%, but that of Articles for casino (MOP286 million) went down by 22.6%.

By place of origin, merchandise import from mainland China (MOP21.62 billion) decreased by 3.9% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2019. On the other hand, imports from the EU (MOP17.44 billion), the Belt and Road Countries (MOP10.80 billion) and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (MOP637 million) increased by 6.2%, 107.4% and 9.2% respectively. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise import from mainland China grew by 4.5% year-on-year to MOP10.60 billion, of which imports from the Nine Provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta (MOP10.31 billion) rose by 5.0%. Imports of Consumer goods went up by 5.1% to MOP44.67 billion, with imports of Beauty, cosmetic & skin-care products (MOP4.54 billion) and Footwear (MOP1.93 billion) rising by 32.1% and 23.9% respectively. Yet, imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP5.47 billion), Mobile phones (MOP3.07 billion) and Construction materials (MOP1.19 billion) dropped by 0.3%, 34.5% and 24.9% respectively.

External merchandise trade totalled MOP73.47 billion from January to September 2019, down by 1.7% compared with MOP74.75 billion a year earlier.