Hong Kong's GDP growth slowed to 0.5% in Q1

Both exports and imports of goods continued to see declines.

Advanced estimates on Hong Kong’s economic growth for Q1 dampened at 0.5% YoY as compared to the 1.2% YoY increase in Q4 2018, attributed to a slowdown in domestic and external demand, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) revealed.

“The modest year-on-year growth in the first quarter also reflected the high base of comparison in the same quarter of last year, when the economy grew strongly by 4.6%,” a government spokesperson said.

Analysed by major GDP components, private consumption expenditure rose marginally by 0.1% in real terms in Q1 over a year earlier, slower than the 2.7% growth in Q4 2018. Government consumption expenditure grew by 4.5% YoY in Q1.

Gross domestic fixed capital formation continues to decline by 7.0% YoY, as compared to the 5.8% dip in Q4 2018. Total exports and imports of goods measured in national account terms also slipped 4.2% and 4.6% respectively.

Exports of services rose by 1.4% whilst imports of services went down by 1.0%.