Hong Kong's strong growth momentum at the beginning of 2003 was frustrated since mid-March by the SARS outbreak, with inbound tourism and local consumer spending being particularly hard hit, said a government report released Friday.
According to the report, for the first quarter of 2003 as a whole, GDP of Hong Kong still attained solid growth at 4.5 percent in real terms over a year earlier, albeit somewhat slower than the 5.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2002. On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, GDP declined by 0.3 percent in real terms in the first quarter of 2003, after a 1.7 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Total exports of goods surged by 19.1 percent in real terms in the first quarter of 2003 over a year earlier. Exports of services likewise attained further double-digit growth, at 12.2 percent in real terms in the first quarter of 2003 over a year earlier, the report said.
On the domestic front, consumer spending recorded a 2.1 percent decline in real terms for the first quarter of 2003 over a year earlier, while investment spending rose modestly, by 3.9 percent in real terms.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2002 to 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 2003.
Overall, the impact of SARS is reckoned to drag down GDP in 2003 by around 1.8 percentage points, while the government's relief measures announced on April 23 are expected to cushion it by slightly more than 0.2 of a percentage point.
(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2003)
