Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total merchandise exports and imports amounted to MOP1.21 billion and MOP11.26 billion respectively in October 2024, down by 10.0% and 3.7% year-on-year. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP10.05 billion. From January to October 2024, total value of merchandise exports rose by 3.8% year-on-year to MOP11.27 billion, while total value of merchandise imports dropped by 9.2% to MOP106.34 billion. Merchandise trade deficit totalled MOP95.07 billion in the first ten months, down by MOP11.13 billion from the same period last year (MOP106.20 billion).

In comparison with October 2023, value of re-exports fell by 10.3% to MOP1.09 billion in October this year, of which re-exports of Articles for casino and Machines, apparatus & parts slid by 66.4% and 37.5% respectively, while those of Perfumes and Beauty, cosmetic & skincare products surged by 130.6% and 68.9% respectively. Value of domestic exports dropped by 7.5% to MOP122 million, of which domestic exports of Garments and Pharmaceutical products & organic chemicals decreased by 33.3% and 7.0% respectively, while those of Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits & other bakers' wares and Copper & articles thereof grew by 62.8% and 28.3% respectively. Meanwhile, total merchandise imports dipped by 3.7% year-on-year; imports of Construction materials, Perfumes and Watches reduced by 40.0%, 38.8% and 33.1% respectively, whereas imports of Articles for casino and Motor cars showed respective growth of 52.7% and 47.0%.

External merchandise trade totalled MOP117.61 billion from January to October 2024, down by 8.1% compared to the same period last year (MOP127.92 billion). Total value of merchandise exports rose by 3.8% year-on-year, of which value of re-exports (MOP10.03 billion) increased by 4.9% while value of domestic exports (MOP1.24 billion) decreased by 4.3%. Total value of merchandise imports dropped by 9.2% year-on-year.

Analysed by destination, merchandise exports to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR) (MOP8.00 billion), the Belt and Road Countries (MOP607 million) and the EU (MOP178 million) expanded by 1.2%, 17.4% and 37.7% respectively year-on-year in the first ten months of 2024, whereas exports to mainland China (MOP639 million) and the USA (MOP253 million) dropped by 17.5% and 34.4% respectively. Analysed by commodity, exports of Textiles & garments grew by 11.5% year-on-year to MOP1.29 billion, and exports of Non-textiles went up by 2.9% to MOP9.99 billion.

By place of origin, merchandise imports from mainland China (MOP32.08 billion), the EU (MOP31.21 billion) and the Belt and Road Countries (MOP24.16 billion) decreased by 2.5%, 16.6% and 6.1% respectively year-on-year in the first ten months of2024,while those from Japan (MOP7.53 billion) increased by 5.5%. Analysed by place of consignment, merchandise imports from the Hong Kong SAR (MOP83.16 billion) fell by 12.4% year-on-year, whereas imports from mainland China (MOP17.50 billion) grew by 3.4%. In terms of commodity, imports of Consumer goods went down by 14.8% to MOP75.50 billion, of which imports of Food & beverages (MOP17.87 billion), Garments & footwear (MOP10.47 billion) and Gold jewellery (MOP8.60 billion) shrank by 10.2%, 3.4% and 27.1% respectively. Imports of Fuels & lubricants (MOP6.63 billion) rose by 11.1%, whereas imports of Mobile phones (MOP3.30 billion) and Construction materials (MOP1.74 billion) dropped by 24.4% and 30.4% respectively.