Macau’s merchandise imports fell by 39.1 percent year-on-year to 4.35 billion patacas in May, while exports dropped by 24.2 percent to 687 million patacas, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced yesterday.
Re-exports accounted for 82.4 percent of total exports.
Imports of gold jewellery (64.8 million patacas), watches (101.6 million patacas) and mobile phones (116.1 million patacas) decreased by 87.8 percent, 82.8 percent and 55.1 percent respectively in Macau.
Macau’s merchandise trade deficit in May amounted to 3.66 billion patacas.
In the first five months of the year, merchandise exports fell by 17.3 percent to 4.54 billion patacas. Merchandise imports dropped by 30.3 percent to 24.66 billion between January and May, resulting in a merchandise trade deficit to 20.11 billion patacas, down by 9.79 billion patacas from the same period in 2019.
Between January and May, food and beverage imports (4.1 billion patacas) topped Macau’s list of imported goods, accounting for 16.6 percent of total imports. Some 37 percent of Macau’s imports originated from mainland China. Nearly two-thirds of Macau’s exports were shipped to Hong Kong.
Macau’s exports to Belt and Road (B&R) countries (143 million patacas) and Portuguese-speaking countries (8 million patacas) in the first five months of the year rose by 125.8 percent and 800.4 percent respectively. Imports from the B&R countries (4.86 billion patacas) and Portuguese-speaking countries (285 million patacas) shrank by 1.9 percent and 22.6 percent respectively.
Macau’s external merchandise trade in the first five months fell by 28.6 percent year-on-year to 29.2 billion patacas.
Macau has been severely affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, its tourism, gaming, retail and media sectors in particular.
