The total value of merchandise export increased by 8.1 percent year-on-year to 12.19 billion patacas (about $1.51 billion), the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR)'s statistic service said on Sunday.

The latest data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that in 2018, the value of re-exports grew by 12.3 percent to 10.66 billion patacas (about $1.32 billion), but that of domestic exports declined by 14.3 percent to 1.53 billion patacas (about $189 million).

Analyzed by destination, merchandise export to the nine provinces of the Pan Pearl River Delta increased by 2.7 percent year-on-year to 1.96 billion patacas (about $243 million) in 2018.

Exports to Hong Kong SAR (7.57 billion patacas or $937 million) and the European Union (209 million patacas or $26 million) rose by 14.7 percent and 10.0 percent respectively.

Exports of non-textiles went up by 10.3 percent year-on-year to 11.50 billion patacas (about $1.42 billion), of which value of machines, apparatus and parts (2.56 billion patacas or $317 million) grew by 93.1 percent, but that of electronic components (491 million patacas or $61 m​illion) declined by 33.8 percent.