Volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade in May 2021

     Further to the external merchandise trade statistics in value terms for May 2021 released earlier on, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (July 19) the volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade for that month.
 
     In May 2021, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 17.7% and 20.1% respectively over May 2020.
 
     Comparing the first five months of 2021 with the same period in 2020, the volume of Hong Kong's total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 26.2% and 22.8% respectively.
 
     Comparing the three-month period ending May 2021 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods and imports of goods decreased by 3.9% and 1.0% respectively.
 
     Changes in volume of external merchandise trade are derived from changes in external merchandise trade value with the effect of price changes discounted.
 
     Comparing May 2021 with May 2020, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 5.3% and 4.7% respectively.
 
     As regards price changes in the first five months of 2021 over the same period in 2020, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 2.5% and 2.4% respectively.
 
     Price changes in external merchandise trade are reflected by changes in unit value indices of external merchandise trade, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, specific price data.
 
     The terms of trade index is derived from the ratio of price index of total exports of goods to that of imports of goods. Compared with the same periods in 2020, the index increased by 0.6% in May 2021 and 0.1% in the first five months of 2021.

     Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
 
     Comparing May 2021 with May 2020, double-digit increases were recorded for the total export volume to Taiwan (25.2%), India (25.0%) and the mainland of China (the Mainland) (17.3%). Concurrently, the total export volume to the USA (7.7%) also increased. On the other hand, the total export volume to Japan decreased by 5.6%.
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to the Mainland (8.2%), Taiwan (6.4%), India (4.4%) and Japan (0.1%) increased. On the other hand, the total export prices to the USA decreased by 0.1%.
 
     Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
 
     Comparing May 2021 with May 2020, double-digit increases were recorded for the import volume from Taiwan (32.5%), Singapore (32.0%), Japan (21.6%), the Mainland (17.0%) and Korea (15.3%).
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from all main suppliers increased: Korea (17.3%), Singapore (12.9%), Taiwan (10.1%), the Mainland (3.1%) and Japan (0.2%).
 
Further information
 
     Details of the above statistics are published in the May 2021 issue of "Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Index Numbers". Users can download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1020006&scode=230).
 
     Enquiries on merchandise trade indices may be directed to the Trade Analysis Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel: 2582 4918).