Macau's gold jewellery imports dropped 64.2 percent year-on-year to 1.05 billion patacas in the first half of the year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced today.
Imports of watches declined 56.2 percent to 1.41 billion patacas. Mobile phone imports declined 54.8 percent to 1.08 billion patacas.
Gold jewellery, watches and mobile phones are popular with shoppers from the Chinese mainland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitor arrivals from the mainland has fallen drastically since early this year.
Macau's merchandise exports fell 19.5 percent to 5.15 billion patacas in the first sixth months of the year. Re-exports accounted for 86.5 percent of all exports.
Imports dropped 29.2 percent to 29.65 billion patacas, resulting in a merchandise trade deficit of 24.5 billion patacas.
Food and beverages continued to be Macau's number-one import items, falling 25.9 percent year-on-year to 4.87 billion patacas between January and June.
In the first half, 36.6 percent of Macau's imports originated from mainland China, while 64.5 percent of its exports went to Hong Kong.
