Progress: Hong Kong's Exports Last Month Rose 21.4% yoy, Imports 17.7%

Hong Kong’s trade deficit shrank to -HKD30.5b in Oct-21 from a 9-month high of -HKD42.4 in the preceding month.

The lower trade deficit was a result of the decline in imports (-7.3%mom), relatively steeper than the -5.3%mom drop in exports.

Compared to the same period last year, the exports growth accelerated to +21.4%yoy (Sep-21: 16.5%yoy), underpinned by the rise in the shipments of electrical machinery, apparatus, appliances, & related parts; office machines & automatic data processing machines; and miscellaneous manufactured articles.

Meanwhile, the sales of non-metallic mineral manufactures weakened sharply, falling by -4.6%yoy after growing at +30.7%yoy in Sep-21. The outbound shipments rose to China (21.5%yoy), the US (19.9%yoy), Malaysia (35.6%yoy), and India (32.2%yoy).

On the other hand, Hong Kong’s imports grew at a double-digit pace for the 11th consecutive month albeit moderating to +17.7%yoy (Sep-21: +23.5%yoy).

The increased purchases of electrical machinery, apparatus, appliances, & related parts; office machines & automatic data processing machines; and telecommunications, sound recording, reproducing apparatus & equipment contributed to the overall growth in imports during the month.

The imports sourced from China (26%yoy), Singapore (16.3%yoy), and the US (11.5%yoy) grew at a slower pace which shipments from Malaysia plunged by -11.4%yoy. This possibly indicates a challenging condition for Malaysia’s external trade performance in Oct-21.

“Moving forward, we foresee Hong Kong’s external trade performance will continue to increase, supported by the growing foreign demand. The slowdown in mainland China’s economy, ongoing supply constraints, logistic delays, and elevated commodity prices are some of the factors which pose a downside risk to Hong Kong’s exports. In addition, we remain cautious that the recent Covid-19 outbreak in other countries could also hurt the near term trade outlook,” says MIDF.