Hong Kong's external trade rose markedly in November 1999, according to figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on January 10.

In November, Hong Kong's value of re-exports increased by 11.5 percent over a year earlier to 109.2 billion HK dollars (14 billion US dollars), and that of domestic exports grew by 2.3 percent to 15.5 billion HK dollars (1.98 billion US dollars), the statistics showed.

Meanwhile, the region's value of imports in November rose by 9.9 percent to 125.1 billion HK dollars (16 billion US dollars).

Figures on external trade with breakdown by country and region and commodity showed that a substantial increase continued to be recorded in the value of re-exports to South Korea, rising by 51.3percent compared with the same period of 1998.

The main destinations of the re-exports include Germany, Japan, Britain, the United States, Taiwan, China's mainland and Singapore, with a double-digit increase.

Comparing the first 11 months of 1999 with the same period of 1998, increases in the value of re-exports were recorded in electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, office machines, toys and sporting goods, while decreases were registered in textiles footwear and telecommunications.