MACAO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Macao's total merchandise export decreased by 17.2 percent year-on-year in August and merchandise import dropped by 4.3 percent year-on-year due to typhoons' impact, the special administrative region's statistics department said on Wednesday.
Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that both total merchandise import and export for August 2017 registered year-on-year decreases attributable to the catastrophic Typhoon Hato and less destructive but still troublesome Typhoon Pakhar.
Total merchandise export amounted to 805 million patacas (about 100 million U.S. dollars), down by 17.2 percent year-on-year. Total merchandise import dropped by 4.3 percent year-on-year to 6.33 billion patacas (about 787 million dollars), of which imports of watches and gold jewelry fell by 22.6 percent and 13.0 percent respectively. Merchandise trade deficit in August amounted to 5.53 billion patacas (about 688 million dollars).
However, from January to August 2017, total value of merchandise export still increased by 9.0 percent year-on-year to 7.54 billion patacas (about 938 million dollars). Total value of merchandise import grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year to 47.41 billion patacas (about 5.90 billion dollars). Merchandise trade deficit widened to 39.87 billion patacas (about 4.96 billion dollars) for the first eight months of 2017.
Analysed by destination, merchandise export to the Chinese mainland increased by 17.6 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of 2017, of which exports to the nine provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta grew by 11.3 percent. Furthermore, exports to the Hong Kong SAR, the EU and the United States rose by 14.3 percent, 0.1 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.
By place of origin, merchandise import from the Chinese mainland and the Portuguese-speaking Countries decreased by 5.8 percent and 5.4 percent respectively year-on-year in the first eight months of 2017, whereas imports from the EU increased by 11.3 percent.
