MACAO, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The total merchandise import to Macao slid by 3.6 percent year-on-year to 8.48 billion patacas (about 1.06 billion U.S. dollars), the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistics service said here on Wednesday.

File photo: CGTN

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the imports of motor cars and motorcycles, and mobile phones declined by 58.3 percent and 33.3 percent respectively. Meanwhile, those of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products, handbags and wallets expanded by 55.2 percent and 22.3 percent respectively.

By place of origin, the merchandise imports from Chinese mainland decreased by 12.8 percent year-on-year to 2.73 billion patacas (about 340.74 million dollars) in January 2020.

The imports from the European Union (2.66 billion patacas or 332.00 million dollars) and the Belt and Road countries (1.84 billion patacas or 229.66 million dollars) increased by 9.8 percent and 121.4 percent respectively, while the imports from the Portuguese-speaking countries dropped by 27.3 percent to 69 million patacas (about 9 million dollars).

The DSEC reports added that the imports of consumer goods went up by 1.8 percent to 6.28 billion patacas (about 783.82 million dollars), with imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products (788 million patacas or 98 million dollars) and handbags and wallets (549 million patacas or 69 million dollars) rising by 55.2 percent and 22.3 percent respectively.

The imports of fuels and lubricants (567 million patacas or 71 million dollars) and mobile phones (445 million patacas or 56 million dollars) declined by 3.9 percent and 33.3 percent respectively, whereas imports of construction materials rose by 9.1 percent to 150 million patacas (about 19 million dollars).