Macao recorded a trade deficit of 55.32 billion patacas (6.93 billion U.S. dollars) in the whole year of 2011, up by 48.9 percent over previous year, according to the figures released on Friday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

In 2011, Macao's total value of merchandise export increased slightly by 0.2 percent year-on-year to 6.97 billion patacas (873 million U.S. dollars), first rebound since 2006, while total value of merchandise import grew by 41.2 percent to 62.29 billion patacas (7.8 billion U.S. dollars), the figures showed.

Analyzed by destination, value of merchandise export to Hong Kong increased by 3.5 percent, but that to the Chinese mainland and the United States in 2011 decreased by 0.4 percent and 28.9 percent, respectively, year-on-year, the DSEC said.

For the whole year of 2011, total value of external merchandise trade amounted to 69.26 billion patacas (8.68 billion U.S. dollars) , up by 35.6 percent compared with 51.08 billion patacas (6.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010, according to DSEC.