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Christmas exports see 4% growth

By Kwong Man-ki (HK Edition)
Updated: 2007-12-29 06:58

Hong Kong's Christmas sales in the US market registered a tardy growth of only 4 percent this year, hitting a five-year low, according to a Trade Development Council (TDC) report.

Reflecting the fragile Christmas sales, local exports in November rose by 6.6 percent year-on-year, the slowest since September 2006, the Census and Statistics Department said yesterday. The figure was behind the market forecast of 8.5 percent.

"The November figure reveals the disappointing Christmas consumption in the US," George Leung, Asia-Pacific adviser on strategy and economics at HSBC, told China Daily.

Leung expected the demand from the US and other markets will drop further; clouded by the global, especially the US economy downturns.

The bank yesterday released a forecast of the exports growth in 2008 that would come down to 5.5 percent from 7.5 percent this year.

According to the TDC report, Hong Kong's Christmas sales export growth this year, the sales performance from November to December, has been weakened. The Christmas sales growth in the US dropped from 4.5 percent last year to 4 percent this year.

European markets dimmed, with Christmas sales in Germany matching the level of last year and increasing 2.5 percent in the UK.

"The Christmas exports growth is an indication for next year," said Daniel Poon, assistant chief economist of TDC.

Poon projected that the exports growth will slow down next year in the US and European countries, as the subprime woes would remain, and the consumption would be smashed.

The downturn of the housing market would be hitting the household goods consumption, he added.

"If the exports from the mainland to the US and European countries drops, Hong Kong, as a manufacturer of intermediate goods, will witness a slowdown in its exports growth to the mainland," said Poon.

He urged local manufacturers to open up to emerging market such as the Middle East, Russia and Latin America to offset the drop in other markets.

(HK Edition 12/29/2007 page6)