Exports fell 7 percent from a year earlier to HKD 275.4 billion due to lower sales of office machines and automatic data processing machines (-16.3 percent), telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-6.9 percent) and electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (-3.1 percent). Sales to South Korea (-15.2 percent), Malaysia (-11.4 percent), China (-11 percent), Philippines (-5.3 percent), Taiwan (-4.9 percent) and Japan (-3.5 percent) decreased while increases were recorded for the United Kingdom (+11.6 percent), India (+3.9 percent) and Germany (+1.4 percent).
Imports declined 5.8 percent to HKD 322.4 billion as decreases were recorded in purchases of telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-8.1 percent), office machines and automatic data processing machines (-8.7 percent) and miscellaneous manufactured articles (-8.3 percent). Imports fell for major suppliers, namely Switzerland (-21.8 percent), the United States (-14.3 percent), Japan (-9.4 percent), South Korea (-7.3 percent) and Singapore (-7.2 percent). In contrast, imports were higher from Malaysia (+6.6 percent) and Thailand (+2.3 percent).