Hong Kong: imports from Italy rise by 5.65% in November 2006
In November 2006, Hong Kong's imports from Italy reported a 5.65% increase compared to the same period in 2005, totalling USD 3,674 million and accounting for a share of 1.20%. Exports gained +14.92%, amounting to USD 3,547 million and also with a 1.20% share.
Hong Kong's imports from the rest of the world 11.43%, amounting to USD 305,381 million, while exports increased by 10.19% with a value of USD 294,767 million.
In the same period, imports by the leading five supplier countries, by order of value (in millions of USD), share and change, were China (137,952; 44.17%; +14.13%), Japan (32,390; 10.61%; +2.940%), Taiwan (23,685; 7.76%; +17.79%), South Korea (17,272; 5.66%; +14.03%), and United States (12,924; 4.23%, +2.82%). Supplies from the European Union (25 members), ranked fourth, reported an increase of 7.74%, a value of USD 22,933 million, and a share of 7.51%. Among the EU countries that supply to Hong Kong, Italy holds third place after Germany and the United Kingdom, which reported increases of 6.30% and 12.82%, respectively, with shares of 1.77% and 1.35%. France, in fourth place after Italy, reported a rise of 3.44% but still accounts for less than 1 % of the total.
Hong Kong's exports reported the following values: top buyers are China (+14.22%), the United States (+2,65%), Japan (+2,02%), the United Kingdom (+22,87%), and Germany (+4,14%) which are, in order, its leading five buying countries. Italy, in 13th place, reported a 14.92% increase in imports from Hong Kong. The European Union (25 members) reported a 8.74% increase, while Hong Kong's exports are still penalized by sales to Holland (-4.09%). Among European Union countries, Italy ranks fifth as a buying country, after the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland and France, followed by Spain, again in 20th place.
Looking closer at the performance of the key product categories imported by Italy in the period under consideration, machinery and electrical machinery increased by 8.79%, clothing +8.66%, leather clothing +7.32%, chemical products and raw materials +14.67%. Good performance was posted in vehicles with +55.61% and metal products (+20.88%). Significant decreases were reported by footwear (-8.97%), décor/lighting (-5.44%), food and wine (-4.28%), and watches and parts (-20.17%).
In the first eleven months of the year, Hong Kong re-exported goods to the world for a value of USD 273 billion (+9.47%). The top five buying countries were China with 131 billion, the United States with 40 billion, Japan with 13.6 billion, Germany with 8.2 billion, and the United Kingdom with 7.7 billion. The value of products re-exported by the European Union (25 members) was just under USD 37 billion, with a share of 13.50%.Many of the products imported by Hong Kong from Italy were re-exported in large part by China.
The total value of re-exports of Italian products in the period under consideration was USD 3,349 million, with a rise of 13.28% compared to the same period in 2005, with reference to clothing (+37.16%), leather clothing (+29.06%), watches and parts (+11.78%), jewellery (+27.71%), eyeglasses (+54.98%), and handcrafted items (+11.66%). Decreases were reported in re-exports of footwear (-4.03%), textiles and knitwear (-15.66%), toys and sportswear (-11.25%).
