HK's economy expands 6.5% in Q2

　　HONG KONG, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010 from a year earlier, a rise for the fifth consecutive quarter, said John Tsang, financial secretary of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), on Friday afternoon.

　　The broad recovery mainly benefited from robust growth in the mainland and other Asian economies, said Tsang in a press conference, reporting and explaining the statement on Hong Kong's economic situation and latest GDP forecast released by the government.

　　The second quarter's GDP jumped about 1.4 percent from the previous quarter, up around 1.6 percent from the pre-crisis peak in the first quarter of 2008, according to a statement.

　　In the first quarter, Hong Kong's economy expanded over 8 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace in four years.

　　As Hong Kong's GDP in the first half of 2010 increased by 7.2 percent year on year, the government revised the forecast for the whole year to 5 to 6 percent from May's 4 to 5 percent.

　　The statement said total exports of goods surged 20.1 percent in the second quarter from 2009, as the Asian markets still outperformed others by a wide margin.

　　Taking the government's one-off measures into consideration, the consumer price inflation on a year-on-year basis rose 2.6 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter's 1.9 percent, which was believed due to the fading effect of electricity charge subsidy, the statement said.

　　The forecast of consumer price inflation rate for the year remained unchanged at 2.3 percent.

　　The statement said the local stock market experienced sharp volatility and sell-off alongside other major overseas markets in April and May on deepening concerns over the European sovereign debt crisis.

　　The Hang Seng Index closed the month of June at 20,129 points, down 5.2 percent from the end of March, or 8 percent from the end of 2009. The benchmark fell 0.16 percent to close at 21,071.57 points on Friday.

　　Referring to the economic situation for the next six months, the statement said since the outlook for external environment remains uncertain, it is likely that Hong Kong's year-on-year export may slow down in the second half of 2010.

　　"We should prepare for the worst when the situation is reasonably well," said Tsang.