Exports declined for the 13th consecutive month by 0.1 percent from a year earlier to HKD 291.5 billion, after 2.3 percent drop in the previous month, due to lower sales of office machines and automatic data processing machines (-7.4 percent); miscellaneous manufactured articles (-8.7 percent) and articles of apparel and clothing accessories (-10.7 percent) while electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof increased (+7.6 percent). Sales decreased to Vietnam (-21.6 percent), Malaysia (-19.6 percent), Japan (-7.8 percent), South Korea (-1.9 percent), the UK (-13.4 percent) and the USA (-6.1 percent). On the other hand, increases were recorded in the values of total exports to India (+37.1 percent); Taiwan (+22.1 percent); the Philippines (+5.7 percent) and China (+0.9 percent).
Imports declined 4.3 percent to HKD 317.7 billion as decreases were recorded in purchases of telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-4.2 percent), office machines and automatic data processing machines (-11.1 percent) and textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles and related products (-16.8 percent) while went up for electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (+4.2 percent). Imports fell for major suppliers, namely USA (-16.6 percent), Japan (-14.0 percent), Thailand (-10.1 percent), Singapore (-9.8 percent), Malaysia (-9.4 percent) and China (-3.8 percent). Concurrently, increases were registered in the values of imports from India (+16.3 percent) and South Korea (+10.0 percent).