Asian Development Bank upgrades Hong Kong economic growth forecast

HONG KONG: The Asian Development Bank Wednesday revised its forecast for economic growth in Hong Kong in 2011 upwards to 5.5 per cent, up from an April estimate of 5.0 per cent.

The bank's chief economist Changyong Rhee said the city of 7.1 million had bucked the regional trend with a strong performance in the first half of the year.

He was speaking at a briefing Wednesday where the bank gave region-wide growth forecasts.

Rhee described Hong Kong and Indonesia as "exceptions" in the region, which as a whole would see growth slow down because of negative impact from the US and European markets.

The Hong Kong government in August announced in their own assessment that year-on-year economic growth had slowed to 5.1 per cent because of slacking exports.

However, officials said they still expected growth of between 5 and 6 per cent for 2011 as a whole, in line with the revised ADB forecast.

Hong Kong has seen robust economic growth over the past two years with luxury property prices soaring thanks to an influx of wealthy buyers from mainland China.

Copyright dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur Gmbh), 2011