Volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade in December 2022
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In December 2022, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods decreased by 32.3% and 26.7% respectively over December 2021.
Comparing 2022 with 2021, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods decreased by 14.8% and 13.9% respectively.
Comparing the fourth quarter of 2022 with the preceding quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods and imports of goods decreased by 6.6% and 6.8% 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 December 2022 with December 2021, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 5.5% and 5.0% respectively.
As regards price changes in 2022 over 2021, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 7.8% and 8.1% respectively.
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 2021, the index increased by 0.5% in December 2022, whereas it decreased by 0.3% in 2022 as a whole.
Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
Comparing December 2022 with December 2021, declines were recorded for the total export volume to all main destinations: Taiwan (-36.1%), the mainland of China (the Mainland) (-34.6%), the USA (-31.0%), Vietnam (-29.4%) and India (-19.7%).
Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to all main destinations increased: the USA (7.2%), the Mainland (6.0%), India (3.5%), Vietnam (3.4%) and Taiwan (3.3%).
Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
Comparing December 2022 with December 2021, declines were recorded for the import volume from all main suppliers: Korea (-43.8%), the Mainland (-33.8%), Japan (-18.3%), Taiwan (-15.0%) and Singapore (-11.4%).
Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from the Mainland (8.4%), Taiwan (1.9%), Japan (1.5%) and Korea (0.1%) increased. On the other hand, the import prices from Singapore decreased by 0.4%.
Further information
Details of the above statistics are published in the December 2022 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/Monday, February 13, 2023
Issued at HKT 16:30
Issued at HKT 16:30
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