ENG-2019 — Page 80

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The Economy

Hong Kong is also the largest offshore RMB investment product market. As at end-2019, there were 42 Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)-authorised, RMB-denominated unlisted funds primarily investing onshore via the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor, Stock Connect, Bond Connect and China's Interbank Bond Market, with an aggregate net asset value (NAV) of RMB7.7 billion, and 25 SFC-authorised, RMB-denominated exchange traded funds primarily investing onshore via the same channels with an aggregate NAV of RMB57.3 billion.

The Economy in 2019

External Trade

Total exports of goods, based on external merchandise trade statistics, fell 5 per cent in real terms in 2019 after 4.9 per cent growth in the preceding year, as the global economic slowdown and Mainland-US trade tensions dampened trading and investment activities worldwide. The year-on-year decline in merchandise exports widened from 4.2 per cent in the first quarter to 6.1 per cent and 7.2 per cent in the second and third quarters respectively, and then narrowed to 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter due to a low base of comparison (chart 5). Analysed by major market, exports to the US recorded a double-digit decrease, weighed down by the US' additional tariffs on a wide range of Mainland products and weakened import demand from the US. Exports to the European Union likewise changed course and went into a decline amid modest economic growth in the EU. Exports to many Asian markets, including the Mainland, also worsened.

Chart 5

Per cent

15

10

5

O

เ

-5

-10

-15

T

Hong Kong's Goods Trade (year-on-year rate of change in volume terms)

Total exports of goods

Imports of goods

T

T

T

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2015

2016

2017

|

2018

I 2019

Merchandise exports went into a decline in 2019.

Imports of goods fell markedly by 7.6 per cent in real terms in 2019, having grown 5.9 per cent in 2018. Retained imports, which refer to imports for domestic use and accounted for around one-quarter of total imports, plummeted 14.7 per cent, reflecting the significant fall-offs in

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