XN000022-1995-02-28 — Page 13

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External trade figures for January 1995

Both re-exports and imports continued to increase substantially in January 1995, while domestic exports also showed a marked accelerated growth, these are shown in the external trade figures for January released today (Tuesday) by the Census and Statistics Department.

The value of total exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by $19.2 billion or 23% to $101.3 billion in January 1995.

Within total exports, the value of re-exports, at $83.1 billion in January 1995, was $16.4 billion or 25% higher than a year earlier.

The value of domestic exports increased by $2.8 billion or 18.5% over a year earlier to $18.2 billion in January. Meanwhile, the value of imports increased by $24.6 billion or 31% to $104.9 billion.

As the value of total exports in January 1995 was smaller than that of total imports, a visible trade deficit of $3.6 billion, equivalent to 3.5% of the value of imports, was recorded. This compared with a surplus of $1.7 billion, equivalent to 2.2% of the value of imports, in January 1994.

A Government spokesman commented that the strong export performance as reflected in the January trade figures, though likely to have been influenced by the timing of the Lunar New Year, was encouraging.

He also noted a further pick-up in the growth rate of retained imports, to 43% in January, which should have favourable implications for domestic exports as well as local demand in the coming months.

A more detailed analysis of Hong Kong's external trade for January 1995, by commodity and country, will be released in mid-March.