Hong Kong's total exports up 9% in April

The value of Hong Kong's total goods exports and imports rose 9 percent and 7.7 percent year-on- year in April, respectively, the city's Census & Statistics Department announces Monday. The department said the value of total goods exports rose 9 percent over a year earlier to 290.3 billion HK dollars. Within this total, re-exports' value grew 9.3 percent to 285.8 billion HK dollars, while the value of domestic exports fell 4.7 percent to 4. 5 billion HK dollars. Concurrently, the value of goods imports increased 7.7 percent year-on-year to 333 billion HK dollars. A visible trade deficit of 42.7 billion HK dollars, equivalent to 12.8 percent of the value of goods imports, was recorded in the month. For the first four months as a whole, the value of total goods exports rose 5.3 percent over the same period in 2012. Within this total, the value of re-exports increased 5.4 percent, while the value of domestic exports fell 1.9 percent. In the four months, the value of goods imports increased 5.6 percent. A visible trade deficit of 152.9 billion HK dollars, equivalent to 12.2 percent of the value of goods imports, was recorded. A government spokesman noted that the value of merchandise exports saw some appreciable year-on-year growth in April, though slightly decelerated from that in March. Exports to many Asian economies grew further by varying extents, yet those to the major advanced economies in the U.S., Europe and Japan were still distinctly weak. The spokesman commented further that the sustained tepid performance of the major advanced economy markets underlines a still rather unsteady external environment, which might weigh on regional export activities going forward. Hong Kong's export performance will in turn be affected.