Hong Kong hits export slump and worst is yet to come warns top Bank of East Asia economist, as trade war shows no signs of ending
- City’s exports drop 2.4 per cent year on year for seventh month, while imports are down 4.3 per cent
- Tensions between Beijing and Washington remain as President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump prepare for G20 meeting
The city’s exports dropped 2.4 per cent year on year for the seventh month, while imports were down 4.3 per cent for six months in a row, the Census and Statistics Department said on Tuesday.
Economists said the ongoing trade tensions between the two economic superpowers continued to trouble Hong Kong, with no good news on horizon even as the heads of the two nations prepare to hold high-stakes talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan this week.
“The worst is yet to come,” Bank of East Asia chief economist Paul Tang Sai-on told the Post. “Even American importers dare not place orders on untaxed Chinese exports, and there is no time table to end the trade war.”
President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are expected to meet in Osaka on Saturday for the on-and-off trade talks. Earlier last month, trade relations between Beijing and Washington abruptly soured to the extent both sides imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other.