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Apr exports value down 13%

The value of Hong Kong's total exports decreased to $338.3 billion in April, down 13% on the same month last year, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.   The value of imports of goods decreased 11.9% to $374.9 billion for the same period.   A trade deficit of $36.6 billion, or 9.8% of the value of imports, was recorded in April.   Comparing the three-month period ending April with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of exports rose 15.4%, while that of imports increased 10.7%.   The Government noted that the value of merchandise exports declined further from a year earlier in April. Exports to the Mainland, the US and the European Union all shrank and exports to other major Asian markets recorded decreases of varying degrees.   Looking ahead, it added that the weakness in the advanced economies will continue to weigh on Hong Kong's export performance, though the expected faster recovery of the Mainland economy should

400k people inoculated

Around 403,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, with about 252,800 receiving their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine and about 150,200 their first dose of the BioNTech jab, the Government announced.   About 23,400 people received their first vaccine dose under the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme today. Among them, around 9,000 received the Sinovac vaccine and about 14,400 the BioNTech one.   The overall percentage of people who have received the Sinovac vaccine at eight community vaccination centres is about 80%, while around 96% have received the BioNTech jab at 19 centres.   As of 8pm today, about 5,600 people had reserved their first and second doses of the Sinovac vaccine online in the past 24 hours, while about 11,100 had reserved the BioNTech vaccine.   As of midnight, 20 people were sent to the hospital for treatment.
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