Hong Kong's economy shrinks in Q2
2012-08-10 15:35:27
Hong Kong's economy shrank 0.1 per cent in the second quarter due to weak exports amid slowing growth in the global economy, the government said Friday.
The contraction in the second quarter was worse than the median forecast of 0.1 per cent growth by five economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
"On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, real GDP dipped marginally by 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, following 0.6 per cent growth in the first quarter," an official statement said.
Compared with the same period last year, gross domestic product expanded 1.1 per cent, helped by a lower base of comparison a year earlier when a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan disrupted the country's export industry.
The government revised its 2012 full-year GDP growth forecast to 1-2 per cent from 1-3 per cent previously.
"The negative spillovers from the sluggishness of the advanced economies to Asia have... turned increasingly visible," it said.
"Amid mounting headwinds to the global economy, the external environment would thus remain difficult and continue to overshadow Hong Kong's export outlook in the near term."
It said Asian economies including China generally had "sounder fundamentals" and room to ease policy controls to stimulate growth.