HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Hong Kong may have to downgrade its annual growth forecast in August for the second time in three months, the city's financial secretary told the South China Morning Post (SCMP), pointing to the weak recovery of the economy from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Paul Chan Mo-po told SCMP in an interview on Monday (July 25) that there was a chance the forecast would be further downgraded soon partly because the city's economy in the second quarter was not as strong as expected, and the Covid-19 situation had taken more time to ease than he had predicted.

The Hong Kong government in May this year revised down the real gross domestic product forecast for 2022 to 1 per cent to 2 per cent, from an earlier 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent, after taking into account the deteriorating export outlook.