Hong Kong's volume of total goods exports in March increased 16.1 percent over the same period last year while the volume of goods imports also increased 14.7 percent,according to a government press release Monday.

Also In March, the volume of Hong Kong's goods re-exports increased 16.8 percent over March 2003, and that of domestic exports rose 5.9 percent.

Comparing the first quarter of 2004 with the same period in 2003, the volume of Hong Kong's re-exports of goods rose 15.9 percent, and that of domestic exports increased 0.7 percent.

Taken together, the volume of total goods exports grew 14.8 percent while goods imports increased 15.5 percent in volume.

Comparing the first quarter of 2004 with the fourth quarter of 2003 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods increased 3.7 percent.

Within this total, the volume of re-exports went up 4.2 percent,while that of domestic exports decreased 2.6 percent. At the same time, the volume of goods imports increased 3.2 percent.

Comparing March 2004 with March 2003, the prices of goods re-exports fell 0.6 percent, and those of domestic exports slipped 0.8 percent.

Source: Xinhua