The total value of exports and imports rose 26.4% and 21.7%, respectively.
A trade deficit of $27b, or 6.2% of the total value of imports, was recorded in March, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) reported.
The value of total exports of goods rose 26.4% year-on-year to $409.1b in March, whilst value of imports increased 21.7% to $436.1b.
Trade deficit for the first quarter amounted to $67b, or 5.7% of the imports value. Total exports during the quarter rose 33.2% YoY and 19.4% quarter-on-quarter, whereas imports increased 25.6% YoY and 13.8% QoQ.
“The value of merchandise exports continued to grow strongly on a year-on-year basis in March on the back of a sharp rebound in global demand,” a spokesman said.
“Exports to many major markets including notably the Mainland registered visible increases.”
Total exports to Asia grew 27.9% YoY as double-digit increases were seen in Taiwan (51%), India (39.2%), Mainland China (31.3%) and Korea (29.2%). Total exports to Singapore and Japan, in contrast, declined 15.7% and 15%, respectively.
Over the same period, increases in the values of imports increased in Singapore (45.1%), Vietnam (39.5%), Taiwan (34.9%), Thailand (27.2%) and Mainland (20.2%).
“The global economic recovery led by the Mainland and the US should continue to support Hong Kong’s export performance in the period ahead,” the spokesman also said. Exports to US rose 8.2%.
“However, the pandemic development and other risk factors such as China-US relations and geopolitical tensions warrant attention.”
Analysed per commodity, major increases were registered in the values of total exports in electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts by $54b or 38.6%, and non-metallic mineral manufactures by $9.3b or 113.2%, a decrease was recorded in power generating machinery and equipment worth $2.9b or -33.4%.
Further, value of total imports increased largely in electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts (by $47b or 31.9%), and telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $9.9b or 19.3%).
