Trade deficit soars an astounding 415%

Hong Kong posted a massive trade deficit in February.

The Census & Statistics Department said the trade deficit hit $45.8 billion from HK$8.9 billion in January, a stunning jump of some 415%. Year-on-year, the deficit rose by 81%.

The department said that export growth remains weak, reflecting the uncertainties in the external economic environment. It warned the export outlook remains uncertain in the near term due to the weak fundamentals of the US and European economies.

It also noted that imports this February stood at $305.5 billion and exports at HK $259.8 billion. The value of total merchandise exports and imports in February grew 14% and 20.8% year-on-year.

The February 2012 deficit was equivalent to 15% of total import value.

The value of total goods exports, comprising re-exports and domestic exports, grew 14% over a year earlier to $259.8 billion, after a year-on-year decrease of 8.6% in January.

Within this total, the value of re-exports rose 14.4% to $255.4 billion in February while the value of domestic exports decreased 4.9% to $4.4 billion.