Hong Kong's economy forecast to grow 5% for 2011

Government economist Helen Chan reported a 4.3% YoY growth in the third quarter.

Releasing the 3rd Quarter Economic Report 2011 and the preliminary figures on Q3 Gross Domestic Product, Government Economist Helen Chan said that on a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter basis, GDP expanded 0.1% in real terms.

Broadly on par with the growth trend of the past decade, she said it represented a further moderation from the 5.3% growth seen in the second quarter. The moderation was mainly caused by a sharp fall-off in exports towards the end of the quarter, amid an increasingly austere global economic environment.

She said having regard to the actual outturn of 5.6% GDP growth in the first three quarters of this year, the economy is now forecast to grow 5% for 2011 as a whole, the lower boundary of the earlier range forecast of 5% to 6% in the August round.

She said total goods exports fell to a modest year-on-year decline of 2.2% in real terms in the third quarter due to decreases in exports to the US and EU markets.

The forecast rates of headline and underlying consumer price inflation for this year as a whole are marked down slightly to 5.2% and 5.3%, from 5.4% and 5.5% in August.