Macao registered a gap of 11.51 billion patacas (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) between export and import in 2005, according to statistics issued on Friday.

The figures from the government-run Statistics and Census Service (SCS) showed that the total value of exports in the past year stood at 19.82 billion patacas (2.47 billion U.S. dollars) while that of imports 31.34 billion patacas (3.92 billion U.S. dollars).

The SCS figures showed that the exports value in 2005 recorded a decrease of 12.1 percent over 2004 while the imports value saw a year-on-year rise of 12.3 percent.

Local analysts attributed the sharp plunge of the region's exports through the year to the slide-down of the garment and textile exports.

Meanwhile, the rise of the imports is mainly due to the climbing fuel prices.

Source: Xinhua