Both export and import of Macao went up in the first 11 months of 1999, according to the figures released Monday by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government.

The official statistics indicate that the region's export volume from January to November of last year reached 16 billion patacas (2 billion US dollars), which rose four percent over that in the same period of 1998. The import volume was 14.9 billion patacas (1.863 billion dollars), an increase of 4.7 percent over the comparable figure in 1998.

In this sense, Macao had a trade surplus of 1.1 billion patacas(137 million dollars), a decrease of 4.6 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Textiles and garments remained the leading exports of Macao, accounting for 83.9 percent of all exported goods during the first11 months of last year.

Exports to the United States and the European Union accounted for 47.3 percent and 29.5 percent of the total, respectively. And exports to China's inland areas and Hong Kong occupied 16.2 percent.

Most imports came from the Asia-Pacific region. China's inland areas and Hong Kong supplied 53.3 percent. And goods from the United States and the European Union accounted for 18.2 percent.