The value of total exports of goods rose 20.5% over a year earlier to $153.6 billion, after a year-on-year increase of 4.2% in January, the Census & Statistics Department says.

Within this total, the value of re-exports grew 18.8% to $144.1 billion, while the value of domestic exports rose 52.4% to $9.5 billion.

Concurrently, the value of imports of goods rose 28.3% over a year earlier to $176.7 billion in February, after a year-on-year increase of 0.6% in January.

A visible trade deficit of $23 billion, equivalent to 13% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in February.

Taking January and February as a whole to neutralise the distortion caused by the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year holidays, the value of total exports of goods rose 10.8% over the same period last year. Within this total, the value of re-exports grew 9.1%, while the value of domestic exports rose 41.7%.

Concurrently, the value of imports of goods grew 12.5%. A visible trade deficit of $18.7 billion, equivalent to 5.2% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in the first two months of 2006. For those two months as a whole, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of re-exports to many major destinations, in particular the Mainland (+18.6%), South Korea (+13%) and Taiwan (+6.8%).

However, year-on-year falls were registered in the values of re-exports to the Netherlands (-18%) and the UK (-11.6%).

Major destinations

Concurrently, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of domestic exports to all major destinations, in particular the Netherlands (+261.1%), Italy (+194%), Germany (+158%), the UK (+130.9%) and Australia (+109.1%).

Over the same periods of comparison, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of imports from most major suppliers, in particular Singapore (+37.8%), South Korea (+25%), Germany (+22%), Thailand (+18.8%) and Taiwan (+14.7%).

For the first two months as a whole, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of re-exports of many principal commodity divisions, in particular electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts (by $15.6 billion or 27%) and telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $9.1 billion or 21.2%).

However, a year-on-year decrease was registered in the value of re-exports of clothing (by $4.3 billion or 16.8%).

Concurrently, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of domestic exports of most principal commodity divisions, in particular clothing (by $3.9 billion or 71.3%), office machines and automatic data processing machines (by $2.2 billion or 126.5%) and plastics in primary forms (by $110 million or 19.4%).

Over the same periods of comparison, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of imports of many principal commodity divisions, in particular electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (by $17 billion or 24.9%), telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $9.7 billion or 25.3%) and petroleum, petroleum products and related materials (by $3.7 billion or 57.3%).

The Census & Statistics Department said the continued surge in domestic exports, supported by distinct increases in exports of clothing as well as office machines and equipment, will help provide better job opportunities for the local manufacturing workforce.