Volume and Price Statistics of External Merchandise Trade in April 2021
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In April 2021, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 19.7% and 21.0% respectively over April 2020.
Comparing the first four months of 2021 with the same period in 2020, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 28.6% and 23.5% respectively.
Comparing the three-month period ending April 2021 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 12.3% and 7.6% respectively.
Changes in volume of external merchandise trade are derived from changes in external merchandise trade value with the effect of price changes discounted.
Comparing April 2021 with April 2020, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 4.2% and 4.0% respectively.
As regards price changes in the first four months of 2021 over the same period in 2020, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods both increased by 1.8%.
Price changes in external merchandise trade are reflected by changes in unit value indices of external merchandise trade, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, specific price data.
The terms of trade index is derived from the ratio of price index of total exports of goods to that of imports of goods. Compared with the same periods in 2020, the index increased by 0.2% in April 2021, whereas it remained virtually unchanged in the first four months of 2021.
Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
Comparing April 2021 with April 2020, the total export volume to India increased substantially, by 163.0%. Concurrently, double-digit increases were recorded for the total export volume to Taiwan (27.2%), the USA (24.3%) and the mainland of China (the Mainland) (13.5%). On the other hand, the total export volume to Japan decreased by 17.1%.
Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to Taiwan (7.0%), the Mainland (6.4%), India (4.4%) and Japan (1.7%) increased. On the other hand, the total export prices to the USA decreased by 0.5%.
Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
Comparing April 2021 with April 2020, double-digit increases were recorded for the import volume from Taiwan (31.9%), Korea (20.1%), the Mainland (19.6%) and Japan (19.5%). Concurrently, the import volume from Singapore (9.8%) also increased.
Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from all main suppliers increased: Korea (18.5%), Singapore (9.9%), Taiwan (9.5%), the Mainland (1.8%) and Japan (1.0%).
Further information
Details of the above statistics are published in the April 2021 issue of "Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Index Numbers". Users can download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1020006&scode=230).
Enquiries on merchandise trade indices may be directed to the Trade Analysis Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel.: 2582 4918).
Ends/Thursday, June 17, 2021
Issued at HKT 16:30
Issued at HKT 16:30
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