HK's Export Forecast Unchanged: TDC

The Trade Development Council (TDC) is keeping its export growth forecast for Hong Kong for this year steady at 2 percent.

The TDC said Hong Kong exports may recover later this year if China and the United States make progress in their trade talks and manage to avoid further tariff hikes.

The council's research director, Nicholas Kwan, said on Monday local exporters have been feeling the pinch because of the uncertainty sparked by the China-US trade war.

"Their problem is not so much they don't get an order or the order is too high, the price is too difficult, but they don't know what the ultimate tariffs will be when they send out the product, so this kind of uncertainty has held back a lot of the contracts or orders they're supposed to be able to go out to get," he said.

Just last month, the TDC revised sharply downwards its forecast for 2019 export growth from 5 percent to 2 percent, citing the threat posed by prolonged trade disruption and slowing growth in some of the world’s major economies.

Meanwhile, David Wong, a Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress and chairman of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, warned that the local economy would take a hit because of the ongoing anti-extradition protests.

He said consumer confidence and the retail sector could be affected.

Wong called on the government to do more to improve the economy and people's livelihoods.