Hong Kong's Q4 GNP grows 0.7% while GDP falls

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

HONG KONG, March 13 (Chinese media) -- Hong Kong's gross national product in the fourth quarter rose 0.7 percent year on year to 453. 6 billion HK dollars (58.2 billion U.S. dollars), the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Friday.

The Census and Statistics Department said the gross domestic product in the same quarter fell 2.6 percent to 436.4 billion HK dollars (55.9 billion U.S. dollars).

For 2008 as a whole, the GNP increased by 6.1 percent year on year to 1,760 billion HK dollars (225.6 billion U.S. dollars) at current market prices. After netting out the effect of price changes, GNP increased by 4.5 percent in real terms in 2008.

In real terms, the fourth quarter GNP also grew by 0.7 percent, compared the corresponding fall of 2.5 percent in GDP.

Gross domestic product is typically defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, whereas gross national product is the total income earned by a nation's permanent residents.

Put simply, GNP includes income earned abroad by local citizens but not the income that foreigners earn in the country or region. GDP includes income earned by foreigners in the region but not the income earned abroad by local citizens.

The difference between Hong Kong's GDP and GNP in the fourth quarter represented a net external factor income inflow of 17.2 billion HK dollars (2.2 billion U.S. dollars), which was equivalent to 3.9 percent of the quarterly GDP.

Chinese mainland continued to be the largest source of Hong Kong's external factor income inflow, accounting for 37.5 percent. The British Virgin Islands came next with a contribution of 24 percent to the external factor income.