XN000022-1996-05-13 — Page 19

-

· 18

18 -

Over the same period, a decrease in the value of re-exports was registered for telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $2.5 billion or 9%).

Changes in the value of domestic exports to ten main destinations are shown in Table 3.

Comparing the first quarter of 1996 with the same period in 1995, decreases were recorded in the value of domestic exports to Singapore (-11%), the United States (-9.7%), Japan (-8.6%), Germany (-6.5%), Canada (-4.3%), China (-3.8%) and the Netherlands (-3.6%).

However, the value of domestic exports to Taiwan, the United Kingdom and France increased by 10%, 4% and 0.7% respectively.

Taking all destinations together, the value of domestic exports in the first quarter of 1996, at $47.6 billion, decreased by 6% over the same period in 1995.

Table 4 shows changes in the value of domestic exports of 10 principal commodity divisions.

Comparing the first quarter of 1996 with the same period in 1995, decreases in the value of domestic exports were registered for office machines and automatic data processing machines (by $1.6 billion or 32%); clothing (by $720 million or 5.1%); telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $593 million or 23%); miscellaneous manufactured articles consisting mainly of jewellery, goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares (by $457 million or 10%); and photographic apparatus, equipment and supplies, optical goods, watches and clocks (by $291 million or 7.5%).

Over the same period, increases in the value of domestic exports were recorded for electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof (by $1.3 billion or 19%); and machinery specialised for particular industries (by $153 million or 25%).

Changes in the value of imports from 10 main suppliers are shown in Table 5.

Comparing the first quarter of 1996 with the same period in 1995, the value of imports from most main suppliers showed increases of various magnitudes: Malaysia (+32%), Italy (+26%), the United Kingdom (+19%), the United States (+15%), Singapore (+14%), Germany (+12%), China (+4.5%), South Korea (+3.2%) and Taiwan (+1.1%).