Macao's trade deficit for the first quarter of 2010 expanded by 30.6 percent over the same period of last year to 8.17 billion patacas (1.02 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Friday by the city's Statistics and Census Service.

The figures showed that the total value of merchandise export fell by 9.4 percent year-on-year to 1.83 billion patacas (230 million dollars) in the first quarter, with that of domestic export declined by 39.7 percent, while merchandise import grew by 20.9 percent to 10 billion patacas (1.25 billion dollars).

Analyzed by destination of export, value of merchandise export to Hong Kong in the first quarter increased by 24.6 percent year- on-year to 839 million patacas (105 million dollars), while that to the Chinese mainland, the United States and the European Union decreased by 7.2 percent, 58.8 percent and 48.2 percent year-on- year respectively.

Regarding the country of origin of imported goods, the value of merchandise import from the Chinese mainland and the EU expanded by 20.9 percent and 27.1 percent respectively year-on-year in the first quarter.