Home | China | World | Business Macao's Exports Slide in 2001 TUE, FEB 19, 2002     Ailing market demand in the United States and the European Union drew down the exports of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in 2001, the latest official tallies show. Figures released Tuesday by the Statistics and Census Services show that Macao's exports tumbled 9.4 percent year on year to 18.47 billion patacas (2.31 billion U.S. dollars) in combined value last year. This lowered Macao's economic expansion, though cushioned by stable government and consumer spending and robust tourism business. The authorities predict that the SAR's economy has grown 0.5 to 1 percent in 2001, compared with a 4.6 percent rise in the year 2000. Textile products and clothing came to 83.9 percent of the aggregate exports but fell by 7.7 percent. Other exports including machinery equipment and spare parts dived 17 percent. The U.S. and E.U. remain key export markets for Macao, which received 74.8 percent of the SAR's export goods in 2001, despite year-on-year drops of 9.5 percent for the U.S. and 15.1 percent for the E.U., the source said. On the other hand, the Macao SAR imported 19.17 billion patacas (2.4 billion dollars) of commodities last year, a rise of 5.9 percent from the year previously. The increase was mainly brought by a sharp growth in the imports of capital goods, consumption goods, fuel and lubricating oil as that of raw material and half-finished products slid. China's inland and Hong Kong contributed slightly over half of the total imports. Negative trade balance stood at roughly 700 million patacas (87.5 million dollars) for the whole year. Macao's manufacturers expect that the recovery of the U.S. economy, which is foreseen by many economists to come up in the later half of this year, will give an impetus to their production. Editor:Hope CCTV.com Recommend to your friend email:    China Central Television,All Rights Reserved