HONG Kong exports fell 19.9 percent last month compared with a year ago and imports fell 17.8 percent, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said yesterday.

A spokesman for the Census and Statistics Department said the year-on-year decline in exports widened last month after several months of relative improvement. Hong Kong's exports fell 5.4 percent year on year in June, and imports fell 7.9 percent.

"The weak performance was felt across the region as import demand in developed economies was subdued. Many other Asian economies continued to record larger export declines than Hong Kong," he said.

The performance partly reflected the high base of comparison from a year ago and suggested "the recovery would be uneven since overseas demand has yet to visibly improve," he added.

For the first seven months, exports dropped 17.7 percent over the same period last year.