The volume of Hong Kong's goods re-exports rose 14% in February over the same month in 2006, while that of domestic exports fell 34.3%. Taken together, the total export volume rose 10.9%. At the same time, the volume of goods imports rose marginally, by 0.1%.

The Census & Statistics Department said as the trade flows in January and February each year tend to show considerable volatility due to differences in timing of the Lunar New Year holidays, it is useful to analyse the figures for these two months together.

Comparing the first two months of 2007 with the same period last year, the volume of Hong Kong's goods re-exports rose 12.1%, while that of domestic exports fell significantly, by 36.1%.

Taken together, the volume of total goods exports grew 8.9% while goods imports rose 6.3%.

Comparing the three-month period ending February with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total goods exports rose 3.6%.  Within this total, the volume of re-exports grew 4.6%, while that of domestic exports fell 15.9%. Concurrently, the volume of imports of goods rose 1.6%.

In the first two months of 2007, the prices of re-exports of goods rose 2.8%, and those of domestic exports by 0.3%. Taken together, the prices of total goods exports grew 2.7%. In the same period, goods imports prices also rose 2.7%.