MACAO, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The total merchandise export of Macao in March amounted to 1.19 billion patacas (147.77 million U.S. dollars), up by 15.5 percent year-on-year, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistics department said on Tuesday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the value of re-exports increased by 22.2 percent to 1.07 billion patacas, with that of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products and optical instruments surging by 360.9 percent and 178.4 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the value of domestic exports dropped by 23.9 percent to 115 million patacas, with that of copper and articles falling by 35.2 percent.

In the first three months in 2019, the total value of merchandise export increased by 22.5 percent year-on-year to 3.64 billion patacas, of which the value of re-exports (3.31 billion patacas) grew by 28.5 percent, but that of domestic exports (331 million patacas) declined by 16.5 percent.

Exports of non-textiles went up by 22.0 percent year-on-year to 3.40 billion patacas. Exports of textiles and garments totaled 239 million patacas, up by 29.8 percent. (One U.S. dollar equals to 8.08 patacas)