Hong Kong exports fall again, weighing on economy’s outlook

Hong Kong’s exports fell again in July as waning global demand and China’s slowing recovery continue to weigh on the city’s economy.

Overseas shipments dropped 9.1% from a year earlier, the Census and Statistics Department said Thursday. That was worse than the median estimate of a 8.8% decline in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Exports have been falling for more than a year.

Imports decreased 7.9%, compared with economists’ expectation of a 5.9% drop. The trade deficit was HK$30 billion ($3.8 billion).

Exports to Asia for the month declined by 11.6% from July 2022, a government spokesperson said in a statement accompanying the data. Shipments to mainland China plunged 15.2%, while those to Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines also dropped by double-digit percentages. Exports to the US and the EU also shrank.

“The difficult external environment will continue to weigh on Hong Kong’s exports performance,” a government spokesperson said in a statement.

The city’s shipments overseas have struggled in the past year as rising global inflation weighs on demand for goods, while a slowing economic recovery in mainland China also takes a toll. 

The trade figures are an added challenge for Hong Kong’s economy, the outlook for which has grown less optimistic recently as the city’s post-pandemic activity boom loses some steam.

Authorities recently narrowed their economic growth forecast for the year to a range of 4% to 5%. That came after gross domestic product expanded 1.5% in the April-to June period from a year earlier, much weaker than economists had projected.