Thirty-two percent of Hong Kong' s total exports to the Chinese Mainland were for outward processing in this year's third quarter, according to statistics of the Census and Statistics Department released on Monday.

Meanwhile, 48 percent of Hong Kong's imports from the Chinese Mainland were related to outward processing.

In the January-September period, 32 percent of Hong Kong's total exports to the Mainland were for outward processing. Half of Hong Kong's imports from the Mainland were related to outward processing.

In value terms, 143 billion HK dollars of Hong Kong's total exports to the Chinese Mainland in this year's third quarter were for outward processing, representing an increase of 23 percent over last year's third quarter.

In January to September this year, 377.7 billion HK dollars of Hong Kong's total exports to the Mainland were for outward processing, an increase of 26 percent over the same period last year.

Over the same period, the value of imports from the Mainland related to outward processing was up 27 percent to 561.4 billion HK dollars.