Exports down 7.2% in August

Double-digit declines were recorded for import volume from South Korea and China.

Hong Kong’s total exports of goods decreased by 7.2% YoY in August compared to a year earlier, whilst the volume of imports of goods slipped by 11.9% YoY, according to the Census & Statistics Department (C&SD).

During the same period, export prices increased 1.1% YoY whilst import prices also inched up 1% YoY compared to August 2018.

For the first eight months of 2019, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods decreased by 5.6% YoY in contrast to the same period in 2018. Concurrently, the volume of imports of goods decreased by 7.5%.

Double-digit declines were recorded for total export volume to India (-22.4% YoY) and the USA (-10.1% YoY). Export volumes to mainland China and Japan also fell by 7% YoY and 2.7% YoY, respectively. Total export prices to the USA, the Mainland, Japan and India increased by 2.2% YoY, 2.0% YoY, 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively.

In contrast, the total export volume to Taiwan increased by 33.1% YoY whilst prices decreased by 0.8%.

Double-digit declines were recorded for the import volume from South Korea (-16.9% YoY), mainland China (-13.4% YoY) and Singapore (-12.8% YoY). Imports from Japan also slipped by 5.2%. On the other hand, the import volume from Taiwan inched up by 0.6% YoY.

Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from Japan, Singapore and the Mainland increased by 1.7% YoY, 1.3% YoY and 1.3% YoY, respectively. On the other hand, the import prices from Taiwan and Korea decreased by 0.2% YoY and 0.3% YoY, respectively.