HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s economy contracted 3.4% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, the government said on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic hammered consumer spending, trade and tourism.
But on a quarterly, seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew by 3%, compared with a 0.1% contraction in the previous three months, advance estimates showed.
It is the fifth consecutive quarter of year-on-year contractions for the city, which was hit hard by anti-government protests last year and more recently by the global health crisis and geopolitical tension.
The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) slowed from a 9.0% contraction in April-June, after a revised 9.1% contraction in January-March, which was the worst quarterly drop since records began in 1974.
(Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Donny Kwok; Editing by James Pomfret and John Stonestreet)
