Good growth: The first two months of this year saw the value of total exports rise 19% over the same period last year.

Hong Kong's export performance continued to be strong in January and February.

For the first two months of this year as a whole, the value of total exports of goods rose 19% over the same period last year.

Within this total, the value of re-exports surged 22.1%, while the value of domestic exports shrank 11.5%. Over the same periods of comparison, the value of imports of goods also increased significantly, by 19.9%.

Last month, the value of total exports of goods (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased 10.4% over a year earlier to $105.1 billion, after a year-on-year increase of 26.7% in January.

Within this total, the value of re-exports increased by 13.1% to $98.0 billion in last month, but the value of domestic exports fell by 17.2% to $7.1 billion.

Concurrently, the value of imports of goods rose by 18.3% over a year earlier to $116.0 billion in February 2003, after a year-on-year increase of 21.4% in January.

A visible trade deficit of $9.1 billion, equivalent to 3.6% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in the first two months of 2003.

This was larger than the corresponding deficit of $6.0 billion, equivalent to 2.9% of the value of imports of goods, recorded in the same period in 2002.