MACAO -- Macao's merchandise trade deficit widened to 19.57 billion patacas (about $2.44 billion) in the first four months of 2017, the special administrative region's statistics department said Wednesday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that from January to April 2017, the total value of merchandise export increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 3.78 billion patacas, of which value of re-exports (3.19 billion patacas) and domestic exports (592 million patacas) rose by 9.2 percent and 9.5 percent respectively.

However, the DSEC data showed that the total value of merchandise import grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year to 23.36 billion patacas, widening the merchandise trade deficit to 19.57 billion patacas for the first four months of 2017.

For April alone, merchandise export amounted to 839 million patacas, up by 11.0 percent year-on-year, value of re-exports (692 million patacas) increased by 15.2 percent, with that of diamond and jewellery (60 million patacas) surging by 303.8 percent. However, value of domestic exports (147 million patacas) dropped by 5.2 percent, with that of tobacco (19 million patacas) falling by 52.7 percent.

Total merchandise import in April declined by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 5.42 billion patacas, of which imports of mobile phones and construction materials decreased by 32.8 percent and 11.1 percent respectively. Merchandise trade deficit amounted to 4.58 billion patacas in April.