Overview: Hong Kong has a free-market economy and is autonomous in financial affairs. Natural resources are limited and food and raw materials must be imported. Manufacturing is the backbone of the economy, accounting for more than 20% of GDP, employing 36% of the labor force, and exporting about 90% of output. Real GDP growth averaged a remakable 8% in 1987-88, then slowed to a respectable 3% in 1989. Unemployment, which has been declining since the mid-1980s, is now less than 2%. A shortage of labor continues to put upward pressure on prices and the cost of living. Short-term prospects remain solid so long as major trading partners continue to be prosperous. The crackdown in China in 1989 casts a long shadow over the longer term economic outlook.

GDP: $57 billion, per capita $10,000; real growth rate 3% (1989)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.5% (1989)

Unemployment rate: 1.6% (1988)

Budget: $6.9 billion (FY89)

Exports: $63.2 billion (f.o.b., 1988), including reexports of $22.9 billion; commodities--clothing, textile yarn and fabric, footwear, electrical appliances, watches and clocks, toys; partners--US 31%, China 14%, FRG 8%, UK 6%, Japan 5%

Imports: $63.9 billion (c.i.f., 1988); commodities--foodstuffs, transport equipment, raw materials, semimanufactures, petroleum; partners--China 31%, Japan 20%, Taiwan 9%, US 8%

External debt: $9.6 billion (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 7.0% (1988)

Electricity: 7,800,000 kW capacity; 23,000 million kWh produced, 4,030 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: textiles, clothing, tourism, electronics, plastics, toys, watches, clocks

Agriculture: minor role in the economy; rice, vegetables, dairy products; less than 20% self-sufficient; shortages of rice, wheat, water

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $141.2 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $899.8 million

Currency: Hong Kong dollar (plural--dollars); 1 Hong Kong dollar (HK$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Hong Kong dollars (HK$) per US$--7.800 (March 1989), 7.810 (1988), 7.760 (1987), 7.795 (1986), 7.811 (1985); note--linked to the US dollar at the rate of about 7.8 HK$ per 1 US$ since 1985

Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Hong Kong on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Hong Kong Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Hong Kong Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.