Hong Kong has a free market economy, highly dependent on international trade and finance - the value of goods and services trade, including the sizable share of re-exports, is about four times GDP. Hong Kong's open economy left it exposed to the global economic slowdown that began in 2008. Although increasing integration with China, through trade, tourism, and financial links, helped it to make an initial recovery more quickly than many observers anticipated, it again faces a possible slowdown as exports to the Euro zone and US slump. The Hong Kong government is promoting the Special Administrative Region (SAR) as the site for Chinese renminbi (RMB) internationalization. Hong Kong residents are allowed to establish RMB-denominated savings accounts; RMB-denominated corporate and Chinese government bonds have been issued in Hong Kong; and RMB trade settlement is allowed. The territory far exceeded the RMB conversion quota set by Beijing for trade settlements in 2010 due to the growth of earnings from exports to the mainland. RMB deposits grew to roughly 7.8% of total system deposits in Hong Kong by the end of 2011, an increase of over 59% since the beginning of the year. The government is pursuing efforts to introduce additional use of RMB in Hong Kong financial markets and is seeking to expand the RMB quota. The mainland has long been Hong Kong's largest trading partner, accounting for about half of Hong Kong's exports by value. Hong Kong's natural resources are limited, and food and raw materials must be imported. As a result of China's easing of travel restrictions, the number of mainland tourists to the territory has surged from 4.5 million in 2001 to 28 million in 2011, outnumbering visitors from all other countries combined. Hong Kong has also established itself as the premier stock market for Chinese firms seeking to list abroad. In 2011 mainland Chinese companies constituted about 43% of the firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and accounted for about 56% of the Exchange's market capitalization. During the past decade, as Hong Kong's manufacturing industry moved to the mainland, its service industry has grown rapidly. Growth slowed to 5% in 2011. Credit expansion and tight housing supply conditions caused Hong Kong property prices to rise rapidly in 2010 and inflation to rise 5.3% in 2011. Lower and middle income segments of the population are increasingly unable to afford adequate housing. Hong Kong continues to link its currency closely to the US dollar, maintaining an arrangement established in 1983.

Above data exclude public sector (2011 est.)

$143.8 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$130.4 billion (31 December 2010)

$1.028 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)

$917.5 billion (31 December 2010)

$540.7 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$463.7 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$2.24 trillion (31 December 2011)

$2.711 trillion (31 December 2010)

$2.292 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)

Fresh vegetables; poultry, pork; fish

Textiles, clothing, tourism, banking, shipping, electronics, plastics, toys, watches, clocks

Electrical machinery and appliances, textiles, apparel, footwear, watches and clocks, toys, plastics, precious stones, printed material

China 52.4%, US 9.9%, Japan 4% (2011 est.)

Raw materials and semi-manufactures, consumer goods, capital goods, foodstuffs, fuel (most is reexported)

China 44.9%, Japan 8.9%, Taiwan 7.5%, US 4.9% (2011 est.)

$285.4 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$268.7 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$903.2 billion (30 June 2011 est.)

$750.8 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$1.155 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)

$1.09 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)

$997.1 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$936 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

Hong Kong dollars (HKD) per US dollar -