MACAO — Macao's total merchandise import soared by 111.7 percent year-on-year to 15.39 billion patacas (about $1.92 billion) in July 2021, while total merchandise export went up 5.2 percent to 1.12 billion patacas, the special administrative region's statistical service said on Aug 31.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the imports of mobile phones, gold jewelry, watches and handbags and wallets swelled by 653.8 percent, 536.6 percent, 311.0 percent and 247.9 percent respectively, whereas that of other textile made-up articles and articles for casino declined by 48.2 percent and 34.8 percent respectively.

The value of re-exports rose by 3.7 percent to 943 million patacas in July, with that of machines, apparatus and parts and watches rising by 67.4 percent and 20.7 percent respectively. Meanwhile, the value of domestic exports grew by 13.6 percent to 176 million patacas, the DSEC report added.

The merchandise trade deficit in July totaled 14.27 billion patacas.

From January to July this year, the total value of merchandise import expanded by 143.6 percent year-on-year to 89.22 billion patacas, whereas the total value of merchandise export increased by 29.5 percent year-on-year to 7.83 billion patacas.

The merchandise trade deficit totaled 81.39 billion patacas for the first seven months of 2021, up by 50.80 billion patacas from a year earlier.

Analyzed by place of origin, merchandise import from the mainland and the European Union (EU) in the first seven months surged by 127.3 percent and 188.7 percent to 29.65 billion patacas and 27.82 billion patacas respectively year-on-year.

Analyzed by destination, merchandise export to the mainland rose by 23.1 percent year-on-year to 1.17 billion patacas from January to July 2021. Exports to the Hong Kong SAR and the United States grew by 33.6 percent and 33.4 percent respectively year-on-year, whereas exports to the EU dropped by 4.6 percent.

External merchandise trade totaled 97.04 billion patacas from January to July 2021, up by 127.4 percent from a year earlier.