Citing factors such as a surge in Hong Kong share prices, sustained export growth, improving employment figures, a partial return of confidence in the jurisdiction's property market, and the stronger than predicted recent performance of major trading partner, the United States, observers have predicted an upturn in the near future.

'Hong Kong's economic performance has been improving for some time,' Goldman Sachs economist, Dick Li told the China Daily news service last week.

However, despite the strong growth in re-exports to and from the Chinese mainland recently shown by the SAR, there are fears that the progress of the territory's recovery may be slower than hoped, because other GDP components, such as domestic expenditure and fixed capital formation have remained weak.