MACAO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Macao's total merchandise import went up by 22.3 percent year on year to 13.88 billion patacas (about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in March 2022, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistical service said on Friday.
The merchandise export amounted to 1.43 billion patacas, up 10.6 percent year on year.
The latest report from Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the merchandise trade deficit totaled 12.45 billion patacas in March.
For the first quarter of 2022, the total value of merchandise import expanded by 30.5 percent year on year to 38.48 billion patacas while total merchandise export increased by 12.3 percent to 3.88 billion patacas, showed the report.
Analyzed by place of origin, merchandise import from the European Union (EU) and the Chinese mainland in the first quarter rose 49.4 percent and 10.1 percent year on year to 14.36 billion patacas and 11.01 billion patacas, respectively.
Analyzed by destination, merchandise export to the mainland fell by 35.0 percent year on year to 281 million patacas in the first quarter. Exports to the Hong Kong SAR, the United States and the EU showed respective year-on-year growth of 20.7 percent, 13.4 percent and 9.2 percent.
External merchandise trade totaled 42.36 billion patacas in the first quarter of 2022, up 28.6 percent from a year earlier. (1 pataca equals 0.12 U.S. dollar) ■
