Macau's imports fell 10.2 percent to 64.08 billion patacas in the first half of this year, when its re-exports, which accounted for 89.0 percent of all exports, rose 4.5 percent to 5.88 billion patacas year on year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
According to a DSEC statement earlier this week, domestic exports dropped 0.2 percent to a mere 727 million patacas.
Macau's external merchandise trade of 70.7 billion patacas in the first six months of the year resulted in a trade balance deficit of 57.4 billion patacas.
Food and beverages remained Macau's number-one import segment between January and June, despite falling 17.8 percent to 10.4 billion patacas. Other main import items also dropped, such as garments and footwear (-2.8 percent), gold jewellery (-15.4 percent), beauty, cosmetic and skincare products (-27.5 percent), handbags and wallets (-20.0 percent), watches (-26.7 percent), mobile phones (-37.0 percent), and construction materials (-26.7 percent). But fuel and lubricant imports rose 16.8 percent.
Most of Macau's imports came from the Chinese mainland (28.7 percent), France (13.3 percent) and Italy (12.6 percent).
Merchants say that large part of the imported goods are bought by mainland tourists in jewellery stores, casino resort malls, pharmacies, and supermarkets. Customarily, Macau's re-exports mainly consist of diamonds and diamond jewellery, watches, handbags, and travel goods. Virtually all products on sale in Macau are imported.
Macau is a special administrative region, separate customs territory and free port of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Caption: Shoppers enter and exit a 24-hour supermarket on Rua dos Mercadores near S. Domingos Municipal Market on Rua dos Mercadores in central Macau this afternoon. - Photo: Carl Leong
