Exports of goods increased by 3.6 percent over a year earlier to HKD 328.0 billion, after an increase of 0.8 percent in August 2016. Exports to Asia as a whole grew by 4.9 percent, mainly to Taiwan (+27.9 percent), India (+20.8 percent), Singapore (+7.8 percent), China (+5.1 percent) and Korea (+3.4 percent). On the other hand, sales fell to Thailand (-11.8 percent), Vietnam (-5.8 percent) and Japan (-4.6 percent). Apart from destinations in Asia, decreases were registered to some major destinations in other regions, in particular Germany (-16.3 percent), the US (-1.2 percent) and the United Kingdom (-0.8 percent).
By commodity, exports rose for: Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (+13.2 percent); non-metallic mineral manufactures (+29.2 percent); and office machines and automatic data processing machines (+2.1 percent). However, a decrease was registered in telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (-3.1 percent).
Imports of goods increased by 4.1 percent to HKD 367.7 billion, after a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent the previous month. Increases were registered in the values of imports from some major suppliers, in particular Singapore (+20.5 percent), Korea (+20 percent), India (+19.4 percent), Taiwan (+9.9 percent), Malaysia (+5.2 percent) and China (+1.2 percent). Concurrently, decreases were registered in the values of imports from Japan (-5.9 percent) and Thailand (-3.9 percent).
By commodity, imports went up for: Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (+11.1 percent); non-metallic mineral manufactures (+14.4 percent); and telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (+3.3 percent). However, a decrease was registered in office machines and automatic data processing machines (-5.3 percent).
For the first nine months of 2016 as a whole, there was a trade deficit of HKD 304.2 billion. Exports dropped by 2.6 percent over the same period in 2015, in particular to Vietnam (-8.1 percent), Japan (-5.5 percent), the US (-5.5 percent), Germany (-3.9 percent), Korea (-3.7 percent) and China (-2.6 percent); and imports decreased by 3.2 percent, as purchases decreased to Japan (-8.6 percent), the US (-6.6 percent), Malaysia (-5.6 percent) and China (-4.2 percent).