China’s tech hub Shenzhen misses growth target but leapfrogs Hong Kong into Asia’s top 5, mayor says
- Gross domestic product up 7.5 per cent in 2018 to US$350 billion, mayor Chen Rugui says
- But claim city’s economy now among Asia’s biggest may be premature as Hong Kong has yet to show its hand
Shenzhen failed to meet its economic growth target last year due to worse than expected results in key technology sectors but its mayor remains confident it did enough to overtake Hong Kong and join the ranks of the five biggest city economies in Asia for the first time in its history.
The south China boom town has been steadily making ground on Hong Kong in recent years, but its nominal gross domestic product in 2017 fell about US$3.4 billion short of a place among the giants of Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
In 2018, Shenzhen’s GDP increased by 7.5 per cent to about 2.4 trillion yuan (US$352.71 billion), mayor Chen Rugui said at the opening of the annual municipal people’s congress on Friday. Its growth target was 8 per cent.
“The economic size [of Shenzhen] is among Asia’s top five cities,” he said.
Despite Chen’s confidence, Hong Kong’s 2018 figures, which will not be released until next month, are expected to show GDP growth of about 3.2 per cent to HK$2.86 trillion (US$364.6 billion), which would see it edging out its mainland neighbour once again.