MACAO, Dec. 1 -- The total merchandise import to Macao in October 2019 grew by 3.9 percent year-on-year to 8.76 billion patacas (about 1.09 billion U.S. dollars), the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistic service said here on Sunday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products, construction materials, and handbags and wallets expanded by 60.0 percent, 21.5 percent and 19.2 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, imports of mobile phones, fuels and lubricants, and motor cars and motorcycles dropped by 18.6 percent, 10.4 percent and 9.8 percent respectively, the DSEC report added.

From January to October 2019, the total value of merchandise import fell by 1.8 percent year-on-year to 72.75 billion patacas (about 9.02 billion dollars).

The import from the Chinese mainland decreased by 3.9 percent year-on-year to 24.86 billion patacas (about 3.08 billion dollars) in the first 10 months of 2019.

Imports from the European Union (19.94 billion patacas or 2.47 billion dollars), the Belt and Road countries (12.47 billion patacas or 1.55 billion dollars) and the Portuguese-speaking countries (707 million patacas or 88 million dollars) increased by 8.3 percent, 112.8 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.

In the first 10 months of 2019, the imports of consumer goods went up by 5.9 percent to 50.47 billion patacas (about 6.26 billion dollars), with the imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products, and footwear rising by 35.8 percent and 21.8 percent respectively.

However, the imports of fuels and lubricants, mobile phones, and construction materials dropped by 1.4 percent, 31.3 percent and 20.9 percent respectively.