China main origin of imports

Mainland China continued to be the main origin of imported goods into Macau, accounting for one-third of all imports.
The latest official figures released by the Statistics and Census Service show that 33.2 per cent of all imported merchandise originated from mainland China, followed by Hong Kong at 10.3 per cent, Switzerland at 9 per cent, France at 8.4 per cent and Italy at 6.9 per cent.
Total merchandise imported expanded by 10.3 per cent to MOP.99 billion for the month of December 2014 compared to the same period a year earlier. The import of mobile phones alone increased by 55.5 per cent year-on-year, although when analysed annually the import of mobile phones grew by 21.5 per cent for the whole of 2014 over that of the previous year.
The fastest growing imported goods were construction materials, which totalled MOP3.47 billion for the twelve months ended last December, up 25.5 per cent year-on-year.
Overall, food and beverages accounted for the largest portion of the merchandise imported into Macau, totalling MOP11.67 billion last year for an annual increase of 21.8 per cent.
The import of handbags and wallets, however, witnessed a 6.6 per cent decrease to MOP3.5 billion in 2014 over that of the previous year.
Merchandise exports reached MOP984 million in December last year, up 7 per cent compared to that of the previous year, while for the whole of 2014 exported goods increased by 9 per cent year-on-year. The value of the latter totalled MOP9.91 billion, of which the value of re-exports increased by 11.4 per cent to MOP7.89 billion, while that of domestic exports reached MOP2.02 billion, a slight increase of 0.7 per cent.
Hong Kong remained the primary destination of exports, receiving as much as 58.6 per cent of the total merchandise shipped from Macau, followed by mainland China at 15.7 per cent, the United States at 3 per cent and Japan at 1.7 per cent.
The value of exported electronic components dropped significantly by 31.6 per cent to MOP657.9 million for the whole of 2014. Knitted and crocheted garments exported totalled MOP254.8 million last year, down by 13 per cent compared to 2013. Overall textile and garments also dropped by 7.7 per cent to MOP781.3 million in 2014 over that of the previous year.
Meanwhile, the value of exported clocks and watches jumped 85.2 per cent to MOP872.2 million compared to the whole of 2013. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, the value of exports of clocks and watches totalled MOP200 million.
Merchandise trade deficit was MOP80.04 billion in 2014, while for the month of December alone the merchandise trade deficit was MOP8.01 billion.
S.F.