42
THE ECONOMY
outpaced considerably the growth of the world economy and of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies. Over the same period, Hong Kong's per capita GDP has doubled, giving an average annual growth rate of 3.6 per cent in real terms. Its level at US$24,100 in 2001 was amongst the highest in Asia, next only to Japan (Chart 1).
Chart 1
Gross Domestic Product (year-on-year rate of change in real terms)
Per cent
15
10
5
0
-5
GDP
Per capita GDP
-10
1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993
T 1995
1997 1999 2001
Between 1981 and 2001, Hong Kong's GDP has grown by an annual average of 5.0% in real terms. The corresponding growth rate for per capita GDP was 3.6%. The double dips occurring in 1998 and 2001 mainly reflected the adverse impact of the Asian financial crisis and the global economic downturn in these two years.
In line with the increasing external orientation of the Hong Kong economy, trade in goods and trade in services expanded rapidly, by about eight times and four times respectively over the past two decades. The total value of visible trade (comprising re-exports, domestic exports and imports of goods) reached $3,052 billion in 2001, corresponding to 242 per cent of GDP. This was distinctly larger than the ratios of 153 per cent in 1981 and 232 per cent in 1991. If the value of exports and imports of services is also taken into account, the ratio is even greater, at 282 per cent in 2001, compared to 187 per cent in 1981 and 271 per cent in 1991,
As another indication of the high degree of external orientation, the stock of inward direct investment in Hong Kong amounted to $3,551 billion in market value at end- 2000, equivalent to 280 per cent of GDP. Hong Kong is the second most favoured destination for inward direct investment in Asia, next only to the Mainland. The corresponding figures for the stock of outward direct investment in Hong Kong were likewise substantial, at $3,028 billion and 239 per cent, much larger than those for all the other economies in the region.
The Gross National Product (GNP), comprising GDP and net external factor income flows, stood at $1,299 billion in 2001. This was higher than the corresponding