Hong Kong's economy expected to grow 6.5 pct this year: study
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-02 21:32
HONG KONG, September 2 -- The economy of Hong Kong is expected to grow
6.5 percent for 2006, mainly due to strong consumption and investment, the Bank
of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. said Saturday.
"Given the decent 6.6 percent growth in the first half and the continuing
momentum in consumption and investment..., the full year growth reaching the
original forecast of 6.5 is still quite probable," said the bank in its latest
Monthly Economic Review.
Hong Kong's economy grew by 5.2 percent in the second quarter of the year,
the slowest pace in two and a half years and significantly lower than the market
consensus of 6.4 percent.
However, the bank pointed to the fact that the 5.2 percent real growth was
still higher than the 10-year trend growth of 3.9 percent. And the average
growth in the first half of the year still amounted to a decent 6.6 percent.
The review attributed the slowdown in growth in the second quarter mainly to
four factors, including contracting government consumption expenditure, gross
domestic fixed capital formation slowdown, growth of goods export slowdown and
rising service imports.
"With the normalization of the external demands in the second half, the
external growth momentum should renew and Hong Kong should see more balanced
growth both internally and externally," said the bank.
|
