Hong Kong's economy surged by 7.5 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2021, maintaining a rapid pace of recovery after an 8.0-percent increase registered in the first quarter.
The growth in the second quarter was mainly attributable to the visible increases in both domestic and external demand, the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said in a statement Friday.
Analyzed by major GDP component, private consumption expenditure increased by 6.5 percent over a year earlier in the April-June period, compared with a 2.1-percent increase in the first quarter.
Gross domestic fixed capital formation increased by 23.7 percent in the second quarter over a year earlier, much higher than the 4.8 percent growth in the first quarter.
Over the same period, total goods exports recorded an increase of 20.3 percent over a year earlier, and exports of services rose by 2.6 percent year on year, as against a 7.3-percent decline in the first quarter.
The Hong Kong economy is on the path to recovery alongside the improving global economic conditions and receding local epidemic, and for the first half of 2021 as a whole, real GDP grew by 7.8 percent over a year earlier, a HKSAR government spokesman said.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, real GDP recorded a modest decline in the second quarter from the preceding quarter, mainly reflecting some slowdown in exports of goods from the exceptionally strong growth in the first quarter, the spokesman said.
It is essential for the community to strive towards more widespread vaccination so as to pave the way for a broader based economic recovery, he added.
As Friday's release was advance estimates, the revised GDP figures and the economic forecast for the full year will be published on Aug. 13.
