|
| 2019/04/03 | Retail Sales Growth Remains Weak Hong Kong’s retail sales dropped 10.1% year-on-year in February after a 7% growth in January, according to provisional figures. |
| 2019/03/07 | Beijing Steps Up Economic Stimulus Mainland China has lowered its GDP growth target for 2019 to a range of 6-6.5%, compared to “around 6.5%” in 2018, as announced in Premier Li Keqiang’s report delivered at the opening of the annual session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing. |
| 2019/02/04 | Federal Reserve Takes a Dovish Turn U.S. President Donald Trump may be feeling a sense of relief right now. The government has re-opened after a five-week shutdown – also reducing the opportunities for conflict with the tough House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and the Federal Reserve has taken a more dovish turn. |
| 2019/01/18 | Near-term economic pressure mounts for Hong Kong People who like surprises may continue to enjoy themselves in 2019 as global uncertainty looks set to continue. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has just suffered a landslide defeat in Parliament, meaning that the United Kingdom has entered a new and heightened phase of uncertainty. Growth in investment in the U.K. has plummeted compared with the European Union. Caution will still be the best approach for businesses, and we may need to wait for some time before the growth in investment in Britain and its European neighbours converges again. |
| 2018/11/07 | U.S Wage Growth May Take Off as Slack in the Job Market Fades The latest figures from the U.S. Labor Department show that average hourly earnings rose 3.1% year-on-year in October, the fastest pace since April 2009. |
| 2018/10/11 | IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecasts In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it expects global economic growth will remain steady at last year’s rate of 3.7% for 2018-19 (Figure 1). This projection, in fact, has been revised down from the April estimate of 3.9% for the next two years. As an institution so often viewed as being overly pessimistic, the IMF has admitted that it was over-optimistic when it made the previous projection. |
| 2018/09/26 | Pressure building on Mainland economy An array of economic data released in September has pointed to the possibility of a slower growth pattern in the Mainland economy (Figure 1). The most eye-catching data is regarding fixed asset investment, an important gauge of infrastructure spending. In the first eight months of 2018, year-on-year growth declined to a record low of 5.3%, compared to 7.8% during the same period last year. |
| 2018/08/14 | Dark clouds looming The Hong Kong economy expanded by 3.5% year-on-year (in real terms) in the second quarter of 2018, following a 4.6% growth in the first quarter. It was also the seventh consecutive quarter of growth that was above the average annual growth rate of 2.7% over the past ten years (Figure 1). |
| 2018/07/30 | Why a further RMB depreciation might do more harm than good The renminbi (RMB) has tumbled in recent months. Since the start of June, it has lost more than 5% against the greenback. |
| 2018/06/13 | Will Higher Interest Rates Mean a Stronger Dollar? At its June meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 1.75% to 2%, marking the seventh rate hike since December 2015. A common belief is that higher interest rates make a currency more attractive to investors, thereby pushing up the demand for the currency and thus its value. |