The Legislative Council's Finance Committee discussed the latest economic situation in Hong Kong on June 1. Financial Secretary Paul Chan stated that Hong Kong's economy expanded strongly in the first quarter, growing by 5.9% year-on-year, the strongest economic growth in nearly five years. After seasonal adjustment, the quarter-on-quarter growth was 2.9%, indicating that economic activity not only continued to expand but also accelerated significantly. Due to the influence of international oil prices, the forecasts for the underlying and overall consumer price inflation rates for this year have been revised upwards to 2.5% and 2.6%, respectively.
Chan introduced that the year-on-year increase in the value of overall merchandise exports in April further accelerated to 42.9%. This was continued to be driven by exports of artificial intelligence-related electronic products. The proportion of AI-related goods exports in the total value of merchandise exports rose from nearly 60% in 2022 to 70% in the first quarter of this year, surging 41.5% in the first quarter and then rising another 54.3% in April. In addition, visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in April continued to rise by 10% year-on-year, and also increased by 8% during the May Day Golden Week holiday.
Related News:
HK's steady economic recovery confirmed as S&P affirms AA+ rating
DDN Business Insider | Q1 GDP rises in mainland and HK: What explains their buoyancy?
Comment