In the third quarter of 2024, Hong Kong's manufacturing sector experienced a 0.1% decrease in industrial production year-on-year, reversing the previous quarter's growth of 0.7%, based on provisional data from the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released on Thursday. The producer price index (PPI) for manufacturing industries registered a 3.2% increase in Q3, a slight uptick from 3.1% in Q2. The sector covering sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities reported a positive output growth of 0.7%, with a 1.3% rise in its PPI, up from 1.0% in the prior quarter.
However, several sectors faced significant declines, notably the paper products, printing, and reproduction of recorded media, which saw a drop of 4.6%, along with the food, beverages, and tobacco industries, which declined by 2.7%. On a more positive note, the textiles and wearing apparel sector saw a substantial increase in output of 5.8%, while the metal, computer, electronic, and optical products, machinery, and equipment sector saw growth of 3.5%.
When examining the data on a seasonally adjusted basis, overall industrial production in manufacturing industries remained unchanged compared to Q2 2024. The PPI experienced notable increases across key sectors, including metal products and machinery, which rose by 6.1%, paper products with a rise of 1.9%, and food and beverages at 1.8%.
The textiles and apparel sector, while generally performing well, experienced a marginal decline of 0.3%..