Hong Kong’s economy expanded faster than analysts forecast in the second quarter as rising wages and low joblessness fueled spending.
GDP expanded 0.4 percent in the three months through June from the previous three months, the government said, slowing from a revised 0.7 percent expansion in the first quarter and beating the median estimate for 0.2 percent growth.
GDP may expand by 2 percent to 3 percent this year, from a previous prediction of 1 percent to 3 percent, it said.
The economy was supported by domestic consumption even as luxury spending by Chinese tourists slumped. Such spending may weaken further after the steepest yuan depreciation in two decades this week. While trading volumes on the city’s exchange surged in the second quarter because of the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect link, the market plummeted last month.
“The second half will be more difficult,” Daiwa Capital Markets economist Kevin Lai (賴志文) said. “For Chinese tourists, Hong Kong is less attractive as retail goods are more expensive with the yuan devaluation.”
The domestic sector remained “remarkably resilient” in the second quarter, cushioning the economy against a lull in external trade, the government said. Private consumption expenditure grew 6 percent from a year earlier, while investment expenditure increased 6.5 percent.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day