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Hong Kong's first quarter GDP shrinks by 8.9% year-on-year

2020-05-15T09:20:02.149Z


The government stated that due to the threat of the "New Coronary Pneumonia" epidemic and the necessary anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic measures, it severely disrupted the local economic activities and the supply chain in the region. The economic recession in Hong Kong intensified in the first quarter of this year.


Financial News

Written by: Xu Shihao

2020-05-15 16:52

Last update date: 2020-05-15 17:05

The government stated that due to the threat of the "New Coronary Pneumonia" epidemic and the necessary anti-epidemic and anti-epidemic measures, it has caused serious interference to the local economic activities and the supply chain in the region. The economic recession in Hong Kong intensified in the first quarter of this year, as the epidemic evolved in March As a global pandemic, the impact on the economy has become more serious. The revised figure for the first quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 8.9% in real terms year-on-year; the decline in the previous quarter was 3%.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, GDP fell sharply by 5.3% in the first quarter, after falling by 0.5% in real terms in the previous quarter. Both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter declines are the largest single-quarter declines in record.

The government economic adviser Ou Xixiong said that in the economic "three-headed carriage", the year-on-year real decline in goods exports expanded significantly to 9.9% in the first quarter, because the economic activities of the mainland, the regional supply chain and related trade activities were seriously threatened by the epidemic Interference and subsequent sharp slowdown in global economic activity. Service exports fell by 37.8% year-on-year in real terms, the largest ever on record, reflecting the halt in inbound tourism in February and March, as well as a significant reduction in cross-border transportation and commercial services.

In addition, internal demand has significantly weakened, and the year-on-year decline in private consumption expenditures has expanded sharply to 10.1% in the first quarter. With the poor business climate and reduced construction activities, overall investment expenditures continued to contract sharply by 14.3% year-on-year.

Standard & Poor's: The epidemic caused the mainland economic downturn to impact the Hong Kong retail industry

[New Coronary Pneumonia] Where did the economic contraction of 8.9% in the first quarter fall into a deep recession after the Hong Kong epidemic?

Standard Chartered Hong Kong's economic forecast expected to contract by 7.2% for the whole year

As for the labor market, it deteriorated sharply further in the first quarter. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate soared to 4.2%, the highest level in more than nine years. The underemployment rate also rose significantly to 2.1%, a high of nearly a decade. The total number of employed persons recorded the largest decline since record.

Affected by the economic downturn, the local stock market experienced significant adjustments in the first quarter, the residential property market lacked a clear direction, reflecting the epidemic situation and the major central bank's vigorous relaxation of the impact of monetary policy. There is great uncertainty; residential property trading activities have slowed significantly The price fell slightly by 1% during the quarter.

The government revised down its forecast for real GDP growth for the year to -4% to -7%. (Profile picture)

Full-year growth forecast lowered to -4% to -7%

The government revised down the GDP growth forecast for this year to -4% to -7%; the basic consumer price inflation rate fell slightly from 3% in the previous quarter to 2.9% in the first quarter; inflationary pressure is expected in the short term Will weaken.

Under the severe local economic situation, the government should continue to ease local cost pressures. In view of the deep recession in the global economy and the recent strengthening of the Hong Kong dollar following the US dollar, the pressure on external prices is expected to diminish further. Taking into account these factors and the actual figures for the first quarter, the forecast for this year's basic consumer price inflation rate and overall consumer price inflation rate will be revised downward to 2.2% and 1.4%, respectively; the forecast in the Budget is 2.5% and 1.7%.

Hong Kong economy

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-05-15

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