HK's External Trade Declines in August

The values of Hong Kong's total exports and imports of goods both fell in August 2001 over a year earlier, according to the external merchandise trade figures released Tuesday by the Census and Statistics Department.

In August, the value of Hong Kong's total exports of goods decreased by 9.1 percent over a year earlier to 133.6 billion HK dollars (17.13 billion U.S. dollars).

Within this total, the value of re-exports fell by 7.7 percent to 119.7 billion (15.35 billion dollars), while the value of domestic exports plunged by 19.8 percent to 13.9 billion HK dollars (1.78 billion dollars).

Over the same period, the value of imports of goods also declined, by 9.3 percent to 136.4 billion HK dollars (17.49 billion dollars).

For the first eight months of 2001 as a whole, the value of total exports of goods decreased by 2.5 percent over a year earlier.

A government spokesman noted that the fall in global demand continued to dampen Hong Kong's total exports of goods in August 2001.






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