Macao's merchandise import down by 12.3 pct in February

MACAO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The total merchandise import of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in February fell by 12.3 percent Year-on-Year to 5.67 billion patacas (about 702.60 million U.S. dollars), the SAR's statistic department said here on Friday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that imports of construction materials, gold jewellery, and handbags and wallets declined by 33.1 percent, 32.6 percent and 26.3 percent respectively, but imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products rose by 25.1 percent.

Merchandise trade deficit in February amounted to 4.75 billion patacas (about 588.59 million U.S. dollars), the DSEC said.

In the first two months of 2019, the value of merchandise import fell by 1.5 percent Year-on-Year to 14.62 billion patacas (about 1.81 billion U.S. dollars). Merchandise trade deficit widened to 12.16 billion patacas (about 1.51 billion U.S. dollars).

By place of origin, import from the Chinese mainland decreased by 2.5 percent Year-on-Year to 4.92 billion patacas (about 609.67 million U.S. dollars) in January and February, whereas imports from the European Union increased by 9.5 percent to 4.15 billion patacas (about 514.25 million U.S. dollars).

Imports of consumer goods went up by 8.6 percent to 10.40 billion patacas (about 1.29 billion U.S. dollars), with imports of garments and footwear (1.65 billion patacas or 204.46 million U.S. dollars) and beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products (984 million patacas or 121.93 million U.S. dollars) rising by 34.6 percent and 32.8 percent respectively.