The Economy 1 57
Mainland with the global economy, Hong Kong's role as an international financial, trade and shipping centre will continue to strengthen. This will in turn provide abundant opportunities to support Hong Kong's continuous transformation into a diversified high value-added, knowledge-based economy.
The Economy in 2011
External trade
2011 was a year full of vicissitudes for Hong Kong's merchandise trade, mirroring the rapidly changing global economic environment. For the year as a whole, merchandise exports (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) slackened markedly to a modest growth of 2.9 per cent in volume terms in 2011 amid an increasingly challenging external environment, following the strong rebound in 2010 (Chart 8). On a year-on-year comparison, total exports of goods showed a strong growth of 17.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, mainly driven by the vibrant Asian markets, but decelerated sharply to virtually no growth in the second quarter, partly dragged by temporary disruptions to regional supply chains arising from the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan. Slower demand growth in many export markets was also relevant. With the effect from weaker demand in the advanced economies increasingly felt across the Asian markets, total exports of goods slackened further to a decline of 4 per cent in the third quarter, before rebounding by 1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, merchandise exports grew strongly by 11.8 per cent in the first quarter, then fell by 11 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively in the second and third quarters, before reverting to a 1.9 per cent growth in the fourth quarter.
Chart 8
Hong Kong's Visible Trade
(year-on-year rate of change in volume terms)
Per cent
35
30
25
20
15
Imports of goods
10
5
©
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
Total exports of goods
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Merchandise exports moderated over the course of 2011, dragged by sluggish demand in the advanced markets.