MACAO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Macao's total merchandise export for June increased by 12.3 percent year-on-year, and merchandise import rose by 19.8 percent year-on-year, the special administrative region's statistic service said here on Tuesday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that merchandise export in June amounted to 1.06 billion patacas (about 131 million U.S. dollars), and merchandise import to 7.26 billion patacas. Merchandise trade deficit in June reached 6.20 billion patacas.

In the first half year of 2018, the total value of merchandise export increased by 10.2 percent year-on-year to 6.20 billion patacas, of which value of re-exports grew by 13.9 percent, but ?that of domestic exports declined by 9.6 percent.

Total value of merchandise import in the first half year went up by 24.8 percent year-on-year to 43.45 billion patacas. Merchandise trade deficit widened to 37.25 billion patacas for the first half year of 2018. (1 Pataca equals to 0.12 U.S. Dollar)