Macau's imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products rose 44.2 percent year-on-year to 7.02 billion patacas (US$877 million) last year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced this week.
Beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products are particularly popular with visitors from mainland China. Macau is a free port and low-tax separate customs territory.
Macau's total exports in 2019 rose 5.0 percent to 12.8 billion patacas. Re-exports accounted for 88.2 percent of all exports.
The value of imports stayed unchanged year-on-year at 90.1 billion patacas, resulting in an external merchandise trade balance deficit of 77.3 billion patacas.
Food and beverages continued to be Macau's number-one import segment, growing 4.7 percent year-on-year to 13.8 billion patacas. Macau has no agriculture and its fishing sector is rather small.
Most of the city's imports in 2019 originated from the Chinese mainland (34.0 percent), Italy (10.4 percent), France (10.2 percent), Switzerland (7.6 percent), and Hong Kong (6.3 percent).
Some 63.8 percent of Macau's exports were shipped to Hong Kong and 12.3 percent to mainland China. A mere 1.5 percent and 2.3 percent of the exports went to the EU and the US respectively.
