By Wendy Leung
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's export growth probably accelerated in September as the city shipped more goods to China.
Overseas sales climbed 8.3 percent from a year earlier, after gaining 7.5 percent in August, according to the median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The government will release the report at 4:15 p.m. today.
Hong Kong is one of China's two busiest container ports and a hub for shipments to and from the world's fastest-growing major economy. U.S. demand for the city's exports has slowed on a housing recession.
"Demand from China and the Asian region make up for some of the softening in U.S. demand,'' said Frances Cheung, a Standard Chartered Bank economist in Hong Kong. "Hong Kong's exports will remain stable for the rest of this year.''
Exports to the U.S. fell 2.7 percent in August from a year earlier, while those to China jumped almost 12 percent.
Hong Kong's imports probably climbed 9.5 percent in September, the survey showed.
The following table shows economists' estimates for percentage changes in Hong Kong's exports and imports in September from a year earlier.
Exports Imports
Firm YoY% YoY%
Median 8.3% 9.5%
Average 8.8% 10.0%
High 12.5% 12.8%
Low 7.0% 8.5%
Number of Estimates 14 13
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Bank of East Asia 7.0% 8.5%
Capital Economics 9.7% 10.5%
CIMB-GK Research 8.0% 9.1%
Citigroup 7.6% 8.6%
DBS Group 7.5% 9.0%
Deutsche Bank 12.5% 11.5%
Forecast Ltd. 7.0% 8.5%
Hang Seng Bank 8.2% 9.5%
HSBC 10.6% 12.8%
ING Groep NV 8.3% 11.0%
JPMorgan Chase 8.1% 8.8%
Lehman Brothers 11.3% --
Standard Chartered 9.4% 11.3%
UBS 8.5% 11.3%
Source: Bloomberg
