Competitiveness of the Hong Kong economy

Our assessment of the competitiveness of the Hong Kong economy from various perspectives indicates that the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong economy has been improving during the past several years. However, from a longer term historical perspective, there are still a number of areas in which Hong Kong’s competitiveness has been eroded relative to her main competitors in East Asia, especially in export sector. On the aggregate level, although Hong Kong’s Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth rate is amongst the best performers in East Asia in the recent years, it has been adversely affected by the continuing relocation of Hong Kong’s manufacturing production to the Mainland China. On sectorial levels, although Hong Kong’s unit labour costs started to decline since 2000 comparing to her Asian competitors, the unit labour cost-based real effective exchange rate continues to appreciate against her major trade partners. Furthermore, Hong Kong’s competitiveness deteriorated in several important categories of goods and service exports. Overall, our study shows that the Hong Kong economy still maintains its resilience to outside shocks, nevertheless it needs to explore new areas to fuel its future growth.