Hong Kong exports in August rose except to U.S.

Hong Kong exports in August rose except to U.S.    The value of Hong Kong’s total exports of goods, comprising re-exports and domestic exports, increased by 7 percent over a year earlier to $151.2 billion overall, but with a fall in exports to the United States, according to Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department.
   Commenting on its preliminary external merchandise trade figures for August 2003, the Hong Kong statistics body said that, for the first eight months of 2003, the value of total exports of goods rose markedly, by 12.6 percent, over the same period in 2002. Within this total, the value of re-exports surged by 14.7 percent, but the value of domestic exports shrank by 9.1 percent.
   A government secretariat spokesman noted that the year-on-year rate of increase of exports for August was lower than in July.
   In particular, exports from Hong Kong to the United States showed a decline. Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department did not quantify the degree of the percentage decrease nor the absolute merchandise trade figures by country, but said that it will publish more detailed
August merchandise trade figures by mid-October.
   By contrast, exports to the European Union had a further notable increase. Exports to some of the East Asian markets, including Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand, “moderated more distinctly in growth or slackened to decline,” whereas exports to mainland China, Singapore, the Republic of Korea and Indonesia maintained double-digit growth.
   The figures will be seen as the latest sign of a relatively sluggish peak shipping season in the Asia-to-U.S. trade.