
Hong Kong's GDP growth to slow to 1.7% in 2017
Blame it on the retail sector's poor performance.
Analysts at BMI Research believe that Hong Kong's private consumption growth will face downside pressure from both external and domestic headwinds, which will keep the territory's economic performance muted over the coming months.
"We forecast the territory's real GDP growth to come in at 1.7% in 2017 (versus an average of 2.1% over the past three years). These headwinds stem from the poor performance of its retail sales sector, which is highly reliant on tourist arrivals, and negative wealth effects from the decline in the extremely overvalued residential property market."