Exports grows:Volume of total exports of goods grows by 28.3% in January.

In January, the volume of Hong Kong's re-exports of goods grew sharply by 32.4% over a year earlier, while that of domestic exports decreased by 7.9%.

Taken together, the volume of total exports of goods grew by 28.3%. At the same time, the volume of imports of goods recorded a rise of 22.6%.

Comparing January 2003 with a year earlier, the prices of re-exports of goods fell by 1.3%, while those of domestic exports increased by 0.5%.

Taken together, the prices of total exports of goods dropped 1.2%. Over the same period, the prices of imports of goods fell by 0.8%.

Changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports of goods by end-use category are shown in Table 1.

The volume of re-exports of capital goods rose substantially, by 45.2% in January 2003 over a year earlier. Notable increases in re-export volume were recorded for construction machinery; and transport equipment.

Re-export volume of consumer goods registered an increase of 22.7%, with notable increases recorded for radios, television-sets, gramophones, records, tape recorders and amplifiers; and watches and clocks.

Re-export volume of fuels decreased by 20.3%, and that of foodstuffs by 17.6%.

Re-export prices of foodstuffs; capital goods; consumer goods; and raw materials and semi-manufactures fell by 11.0%, 2.0%, 1.3% and 0.5% respectively. On the other hand, the re-export prices of fuels rose markedly, by 37.2%.

Changes in the value, unit value and volume of domestic exports of goods by selected principal commodity group are shown in Table 2.

Changes in the value, unit value and volume of imports of goods by end-use category are shown in Table 3.

Import volume of capital goods rose sharply, by 33%, with notable increases in transport equipment and office machinery.