A leading United States economist believes Hong Kong has little to fear from a US slowdown.
Gail Fosler, the senior vice-president and chief economist of The Conference Board, believes Hong Kong's economic fortunes are tied to the development of the China economy.
'China is more important than the US to Hong Kong,' said Ms Fosler.
Ms Fosler also believes the US economy will not weaken as much as widely predicted.
'What we believe is that the economy is still fundamentally strong,' she said.
'Growth will be surprisingly good in the first quarter.'
Ms Fosler, consistently voted by her peers as one of the top US economic forecasters, was surprised by the recent Federal Reserve decision to cut interest rates. 'It is difficult to say whether it was appropriate in that we do not know what would have happened in the absence of a rate cut.'