HONG KONG’S trade-reliant economy grew at the fastest pace in nearly seven years in the first quarter, on the back of strong exports and consumption. The city said Friday that annual growth in the January-March period surged to 4.7 percent, compared with 3.4 percent in 2017’s last quarter. The last period with faster growth was April-June 2011. Growth was “unexpectedly strong and way above the high-end range of the street view of close to 4 percent,” said Thomas Shik, Hang Seng Bank’s chief economist. Andrew Au, a Hong Kong government economist, said he believes the global economy’s broad-based momentum is likely to continue in 2018 as China’s economy “should stay on a robust growth track” following its good first quarter. But Capital Economics said it thinks Hong Kong growth has now peaked “and will slow over the coming months as headwinds from tightening monetary conditions build.” The Hong Kong government kept its forecast for full-year 2018 growth at 3 to 4 percent. In the January-March period, exports of goods increased 5.2 percent from a year earlier, with notable pickups in shipments to major markets including the United States and the European Union, the government said. While the Sino-U.S. trade tensions weren’t reflected in first-quarter numbers, the government said it has “particular concern” about them, for the potentially adverse impact on trade flows and investor sentiment. On a quarterly basis, GDP in the January-March period expanded 2.2 percent from the previous period, the fastest such growth in seven years. In the October-December period, the economy grew 0.8 percent from the prior quarter. The Hong Kong government said domestic demand should continue to be resilient, while local consumption sentiment would be “underpinned by favorable job and income conditions.”(SD-Agencies) |