Exports fell 2.3 percent from a year earlier to HKD 285.3 billion, after 7.0 percent drop in the previous month, due to lower sales of office machines and automatic data processing machines (-12 percent), telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-4.8 percent) and miscellaneous manufactured articles (-8.1 percent) while electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof increased (+4.2 percent). Sales to Thailand (-7 percent), Malaysia (-21.6 percent), China (-4.8 percent), Philippines (-2.7 percent), Japan (-6.4 percent), the United Kingdom (-2 percent) and the USA (-1.3 percent) decreased while increases were recorded for South Korea (+4.3 percent), India (+22.8 percent), Singapore (+4.3 percent) and Germany (+10 percent).
Imports declined 4.5 percent to HKD 316.3 billion as decreases were recorded in purchases of telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-6.2 percent), office machines and automatic data processing machines (-12.3 percent) and textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles and related products (-13.2 percent) while went up for electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (+4.5 percent). Imports fell for major suppliers, namely Thailand (-8 percent), Japan (-6 percent), South Korea (-14.8 percent), China (-5.9 percent) and the United States (-4.4 percent) In contrast, imports were higher from Singapore (+2.4 percent), Malaysia (+1.9 percent) and India (+27.2 percent).