The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) published today (May 18) the May 2020 issue of the "Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics" (HKMDS).

      Apart from providing up-to-date statistics, this issue also contains two feature articles entitled "Container Statistics, 2014 to 2019" and "Currency Composition of Hong Kong's International Investment Position".

"Container Statistics, 2014 to 2019"

      Although the container throughput decreased from 22.23 million TEUs in 2014 to 18.30 million TEUs in 2019, the port of Hong Kong was still one of the busiest ports in the world. Laden container movements between Hong Kong and the mainland of China accounted for 40.6% of the laden container throughput of the port of Hong Kong in 2019. About 75.2% of the laden container movements between Hong Kong and the Mainland were in the Pearl River Delta region.

      For enquiries about this feature article, please contact the Outward Processing and Shipping Statistics Section, C&SD (Tel: 2582 4889; email: shipping@censtatd.gov.hk).

"Currency Composition of Hong Kong's International Investment Position"

      International Investment Position (IIP) is an important statistic in the system of macroeconomic accounts that summarises the external position of an economy with the rest of the world. It is a balance sheet showing an economy's stock of external financial assets and liabilities at a particular time point. The difference between the external financial assets and liabilities is the net IIP of an economy, which represents either its net claim on or net liability to the rest of the world.

      The global financial crisis in 2008 underscored the importance of balance sheet data for assessing an economy's external vulnerability. The international community, such as meetings of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, has been advocating the compilation of currency composition of IIP in recent years.

      The C&SD will compile and disseminate the currency composition of IIP regularly. This article briefly introduces the data source for compiling the statistics in Hong Kong and the use of the statistics in assessing the external position. It also presents the salient features of the currency composition of Hong Kong's IIP during the period from 2017 to 2019.

      For enquiries about this feature article, please contact the Balance of Payments Branch (1), C&SD (Tel: 3903 6990; email: bop@censtatd.gov.hk).

      Published in bilingual form, the HKMDS is a compact volume of official statistics containing about 140 tables. It collects up-to-date statistical series on various aspects of the social and economic situation of Hong Kong. Topics include population; labour; external trade; National Income and Balance of Payments; prices; business performance; energy; housing and property; government accounts, finance and insurance; and transport, communications and tourism. For selected key statistical items, over 20 charts depicting the annual trend in the past decade and quarterly or monthly trend in the recent two years are also available. Users can download the Digest free of charge at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp460.jsp?productCode=B1010002).

      Enquiries about the contents of the Digest can be directed to the Statistical Information Dissemination Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel: 2582 4738; email: gen-enquiry@censtatd.gov.hk).

Ends/Monday, May 18, 2020
Issued at HKT 16:00

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