In another indication that Macau's economy is recovering from last year's severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Macau's gold jewellery imports leaped by 640.5 percent year-on-year to 509.9 billion patacas (US$63.9 billion) in February, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
According to a DSEC statement last week, gold jewellery imports rose by 80.4 percent to 640.5 billion patacas in the first two months.
Gold jewellery is particularly popular with Macau's mainland Chinese tourists.
This year's Chinese New Year (CNY) fell on the second and third weeks of February. Last year's CNY holiday took place in late January. Macau recorded its first COVID-19 case on January 22 last year.
Mainland Chinese visitors' Macau entry permit regulations, which were severely restricted last year, have meanwhile been gradually eased.
Mobile phone imports increased by 528.8 percent year-on-year to 776.3 billion patacas in February when imports of watches grew by 300.4 percent to 864 million patacas and those of handbags and wallets rose by 417.7 percent to 721.2 million patacas.
Garments and footwear imports, which rose by 191.0 percent to 948.3 million patacas, were Macau's number-one import segment in February. Food and beverage imports increased by just 11.2 percent to 789.7 million patacas.
In February, total merchandise imports rose by 102.8 percent to 7.7 billion patacas, while exports fell by 16.8 percent o 728.7 million patacas, resulting in a merchandise trade balance deficit of 8.48 billion patacas. Re-exports accounted for 87.5 percent of Macau's total exports in February.
Most of Macau's imports originated from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong (40.2 percent), France (14.4 percent) and Italy (13.8 percent).
Nearly three-quarters of Macau's exports went to Hong Kong (73.9 percent) in February. A mere 1.6 percent of local exports were shipped to the EU, and just 3.4 percent to the US.
Macau, a founder member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and member of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), is a free port and separate customs territory.
