MACAO, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The total merchandise import to Macao expanded by 16.0 percent year-on-year to 8.61 billion patacas (about 1.08 billion U.S. dollars) in August, the special administrative region's statistic department said here on Wednesday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the imports of beauty, cosmetic and skincare products, perfumes, and mobile phones surged by 383.2 percent, 152.9 percent and 83.3 percent respectively, but those of gold jewellery and watches fell by 72.0 percent and 34.5 percent respectively.

From January to August, the total value of merchandise import declined by 19.6 percent year-on-year to 45.35 billion patacas (about 5.68 billion dollars).

By place of origin, merchandise import from Chinese mainland and the European Union decreased by 18.7 percent and 21.9 percent respectively year-on-year to 15.34 billion patacas (about 1.92 billion dollars) and 12.11 billion patacas (about 1.51 billion dollars) in the first eight months of 2020.

Besides, imports from the Belt and Road countries and regions and the Portuguese-speaking countries reduced by 15.8 percent and 20.8 percent respectively to 7.89 billion patacas (about 988.50 million dollars) and 457.00 million patacas (about 57.26 million dollars).

From January to August, imports of consumer goods went down by 22.3 percent to 30.58 billion patacas (about 3.83 billion dollars), with imports of watches and gold jewellery falling by 53.3 percent and 66.2 percent respectively. But imports of beauty, cosmetic and skincare products expanded by 61.3 percent.