8.
External trade figures for October released
Both re-exports and imports increased in October 1996 over a year earlier while domestic exports continued to fall year-on-year albeit at a slower rate than in August and September, according to the external trade figures for October 1996 released today (Thursday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
The value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by 5.7% over a year earlier to $129.9 billion in October 1996.
The value of re-exports increased by 8.2% to $110.5 billion, while the value of domestic exports decreased by 6.5% to $19.4 billion. Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by 5.2% over a year earlier to $138.1 billion in October 1996.
As the value of total exports in October 1996 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $8.2 billion, equivalent to 5.9% of the value of imports, was recorded. This was slightly smaller than the deficit of $8.3 billion, equivalent to 6.4% of the value of imports, in October 1995.
For the first 10 months of 1996 as a whole, the value of total exports grew by 4.2% over the same period last year. The value of re-exports rose by 6.9%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 8.7%. The value of imports showed an increase of 2.8%.
In the first 10 months of 1996, a visible trade deficit of $110.3 billion, equivalent to 8.7% of the value of imports, was recorded. This was smaller than the deficit of $122.4 billion, equivalent to 9.9% of the value of imports, recorded in the same period in 1995.
Commenting on the latest trade figures, a government spokesman said export performance in October 1996 improved considerably after the setback in September, with a pick-up in growth of re-exports as well as a smaller decline in domestic exports.
Meanwhile, retained imports decreased only marginally by 0.2% in value terms in October 1996 over a year earlier. This suggested that the inventory adjustment process by cutting down from the high accumulation rate last year could have started to stabilise.
The external trade figures in October 1996 is presented in the table below.
A more detailed analysis of Hong Kong's external trade for October 1996, by commodity and country, will be released in mid-December 1996.