Macao's trade deficit for the first eight months of 2010 widened by 27.7 percent over the same period of last year to 23.24 billion patacas (2.9 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Thursday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

From January to August 2010, the combined value of local merchandise import and export amounted to 32.79 billion patacas (4. 1 billion dollars), up by 15.7 percent compared with the same period of 2009, the figures indicated.

Total value of merchandise export fell by 5.9 percent year-on-year to 4.78 billion patacas (598 million dollars), while that of import grew by 20.4 percent to 28.02 billion patacas (3.51 billion dollars), the figures indicated.

Analyzed by destination of exports, value of merchandise export to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland increased by 13.0 percent and 1.7 percent respectively year-on-year in the period, while that to the United States and the European Union decreased substantially by 44.1 percent and 41.7 percent respectively.

Exports of Textile and garment amounted to 1.1 billion patacas (138 million dollars), down substantially by 41.6 percent year-on-year to account for 23 percent of the total merchandise export. The value of Non-textile exports grew by 15.1 percent to 3.68 billion patacas (461 million dollars) in the period.

Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, value of merchandise import from the Chinese mainland and the EU expanded by 18.4 percent and 25.9 percent respectively year-on-year, according to the DSEC.

The exports/imports ratio went down by 4.8 percentage points year-on-year to 17 percent in the period.