Hong Kong's BoP account surplus rises to $14.68 bln in 2007

Hong Kong recorded a surplus of 114.5 billion HK dollars (14.68 billion U.S. dollars) in its balance of payments account in 2007, representing 7.1 percent of its gross domestic product, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Tuesday.

A balance of payments (BoP) account is an integrated statistical statement of an economy's external transactions with the rest of the world, the Census and Statistics Department of the HKSAR government explained in a press release.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region in southern China often taken as a separate economy, recorded a surplus of 46.7 billion HK dollars (5.99 billion U.S. dollars) in its BoP account in 2006, or 3.2 percent of its GDP, it added.

The free trade hub had a surplus of 78.3 billion HK dollars (10.04 billion U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2007, representing 17.5 percent of its GDP in the same period, as compared with 13.9 billion HK dollars for the third quarter.

Reserve assets correspondingly added 78.3 billion HK dollars in the fourth quarter.

For 2007 as a whole, the current account surplus was 213.7 billion HK dollars (27.4 billion U.S. dollars), with the visible trade deficit rising to 153.7 billion HK dollars and the invisible trade surplus growing to 325.2 billion HK dollars.

The current account surplus for the fourth quarter was 59 billion HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)

Source: Xinhua