The total value of shipments abroad dropped to 240.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (31 billion US) last month, the Census and Statistics Department said in a statement.

The decline widened from September's 8.6 percent fall but was skewed by particularly high exports in October 2008.

"Merchandise exports showed a larger year-on-year decline in October, but this was due entirely to the high base in the same month last year when many traders reportedly advanced their shipments for fear of subsequent cancellation of orders at the onset of the financial tsunami," a government spokesman said.

Exports to Singapore, Britain and the United States were hit hardest, all declining by about a quarter.

Meanwhile, the southern Chinese city's imports slid 10.7 percent year-on-year to 259.9 billion Hong Kong dollars, the government said.

For the first 10 months of 2009, the value of Hong Kong's exports dropped 15.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, the department said.

On a seasonally adjusted basis though, exports in the three-month period ending October 2009 actually rose 4.2 percent from the preceding three months.