Hong Kong is likely to report the economy grew at a slower pace in the second quarter than the previous three months, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said, as a spending boom that helped the city exit recession begins to run out of steam.
Chan’s projection, made in a blog post on Sunday, came ahead of the release of official gross domestic product data on Monday. Economists had forecast the government’s data would show an acceleration in GDP growth to 3.5% on a year-on-year basis, up from 2.7% in the first quarter.
Chan said the year-on-year growth rate “may be slightly slower” than the first three months of the year, although the economy was still on track to improve this year, as consumer spending continues to pick up and the external environment gradually improves.
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