MACAO, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Macao's trade deficit for the first eleven months of 2009 widened by 5.6 percent over the same period of last year to 26.04 billion patacas (3.3 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Wednesday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

    The figures showed that the value of total exports of goods fell by 53.7 percent year-on-year to 6.99 billion patacas (885 million dollars) in the first eleven months, while that of imports of goods slid by 16.9 percent to 33.03 billion patacas (4.18 billion dollars).

    The exports/imports ratio went down by 16.8 percentage points year-on-year to 21.2 percent in the period.

    Analyzed by destination of Macao's exports, the value of merchandise exports to the United States, the EU and the Chinese mainland decreased by 79.6 percent, 60.1 percent and 44.5 percent year-on-year respectively in the period. The value of Textile and garment exports declined by 73.1 percent year-on-year to account for 33.4 percent of the total exports of goods, while the value of Non-textile exports dropped by 27.5 percent.

    Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, the value of merchandise imports from the Chinese mainland dropped by 35.2 percent year-on-year, but that from the EU rose by 8.8 percent, according to the DSEC.

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