The economy of Hong Kong regained some momentum in the second quarter of this year, largely due to a rebound in the volume of goods exports.
The economy grew by 1.7% year-on-year in real terms, beating the 0.8% growth seen in the preceding quarter.
After declining for four consecutive quarters, Hong Kong’s total goods exports grew by 2% in the second quarter.
Private consumption expenditure grew by 0.6% over a year earlier, and underlying consumer price inflation eased to 2.3% from 2.8% in the previous quarter.
Delivering the half-year economic report, Acting Government Economist Andrew Au said visitor arrivals finally picked up in July, showing some positive signs.
“For Hong Kong’s services exports, the decline of visitor arrivals narrowed notably in Q2 and actually reversed to modest growth in July, suggesting the drag from the slowdown of inbound tourism has been reducing,” he said.
“If this positive trend continues, it will hopefully help improve our services exports, and also the downward pressures on the retail trade will decrease gradually towards the latter part of the year.”
The report said the global economy will likely continue to expand at a modest pace for the rest of the year.
It said that while the UK’s vote to leave the European Union has added some uncertainty, the government will continue to pay close attention to local and external developments.
The territory retained its economic growth forecast for 2016 of 1% to 2%.
Meantime, the Census and Statistics Department said Hong Kong’s goods exports in June 2016 increased 1.2% year-on-year. Of the total, re-exports went up 1.4%, whereas domestic exports decreased 11.8%.
Compared to the first half of 2015, the first six months of this year saw total exports of goods shrink 1.3%, with re-exports falling 1.1% and domestic exports declining 13.4%.
Meanwhile, the prices of total goods exports fell by 2.0% in June year-on-year. Of the total goods exported, prices of re-exports contracted 2.0%, while those of domestic exports slid 1.6%.
As regards price changes in the first half of 2016, overall exports posted a 2.4% price fall against the same period in 2015. Of this, prices of re-exports decreased 2.4%, while those of domestic exports dropped 2.7%.
Photo: Matthias Süßen
