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Hong Kong GDP records 3.5 per cent growth for second quarter on strong consumption and markets
But government says prospects clouded by escalating US-China trade war
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Hong Kong’s economic health surged 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 amid buoyant consumption and robust stock and property markets, but prospects are clouded by the escalating US-China trade war.
The solid performance brought gross domestic product (GDP) to 4 per cent growth in the first half of 2018, the government said on Friday. The most recent figures followed 4.6 per cent growth in the first quarter – Hong Kong’s strongest in almost a decade. The government’s full-year forecast for GDP growth is an increase between 3 and 4 per cent.
Adolph Leung Wing-sing, deputy government economist, warned that the city’s GDP growth will slow down on a worsening trade war.
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The trade war between the world’s two largest economic powers worsened on Thursday when Beijing threatened to match Washington’s decision to levy 25 per cent tariffs on US$16 billion worth of Chinese goods on August 23.
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America’s move raised the value of punitive tariffs to US$50 billion from the US$34 billion that already took effect on July 6. Another batch of US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods will be subject to 10 per cent tariffs, pending a US congressional hearing on August 20. US President Donald Trump warned earlier of targeting US$500 billion worth of Chinese imports.
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