Hong Kong's goods exports rose 64.9% in September from a year earlier to HK$762.6 billion, the fastest monthly growth in more than four decades, as global spending on artificial intelligence hardware kept electronics pouring through the city.

The Census and Statistics Department released the figures on Oct. 28. Growth sped up from 53% in August and far outran the 51.6% gain the market had expected, The Standard reported. For investors across Asia, the data are a timely gauge of the regional trade in AI hardware. Among the markets the department singled out, the fastest gains came in shipments to Taiwan, Mexico and the U.S., and in imports from South Korea.

Imports climbed 57.8% to HK$808.9 billion, also ahead of a 52% forecast, according to The Standard. That left a visible trade deficit of HK$46.3 billion, equal to 5.7% of imports. A government spokesman said September was the 20th consecutive month of double-digit export growth and the “fastest monthly year-on-year growth in over four decades.”

Momentum built through the summer. On a seasonally adjusted basis, third-quarter exports rose 8.8% from the second quarter, and imports rose 7.9%, the department said.

Computers and chips drive the Hong Kong export surge

Two product groups did most of the work. Exports of electrical machinery, apparatus and parts rose by HK$155.6 billion, or 66.2%, from a year earlier. Exports of office machines and automatic data processing machines rose by HK$87.7 billion, or 183.7%.

The pattern holds over a longer stretch. In the first nine months, the value of electrical machinery exports grew 52.6%, office machines 63.9%, and telecommunications and sound equipment 51.4%, a gain of HK$225.7 billion for that last group, the department said.

The import side tells a similar story. Purchases from South Korea rose 231.1% in September. Korean memory maker SK Hynix posted a record operating profit for the third quarter. Imports from Vietnam rose 118.7%, from Malaysia 73.9%, from India 61.3% and from the mainland 55.6%.

Electronics made up about 80% of Hong Kong's total exports in the first eight months of the year, according to research by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council cited by China Daily. Demand for semiconductors, memory chips and computer components grew much faster than expected, the council's research director, Bruce Pang, said in September. The council's deputy research director, Wing Chu, said the city increasingly handles goods that are “compact in size but exceptionally high in value.”

Shipments to Taiwan and the US more than double

Exports to Asia as a whole rose 67.5% in September. Shipments to Taiwan rose 159.3%, Malaysia 131.5% and Thailand 118%. Exports to Singapore grew 77.5% and to the mainland 68.1%. Mainland China's own exports also surged in September.

Outside Asia, exports to Mexico rose 148.1% and to the U.S. 133.4%. The U.S. accounted for roughly 6.8% of Hong Kong's exports in the first eight months, China Daily reported, a relatively small share of the total.

Over the first nine months, exports to Taiwan rose 82.2%, to Singapore 81.8% and to the U.S. 70.7%. Total exports for the period rose 45.2% and imports 45%. The nine-month trade deficit was HK$417.7 billion, or 7% of imports, RTHK reported, in line with the department's release.

Prices, forecasts and the next data point

The headline numbers are measured at current prices, and the department makes no adjustment for price changes in its monthly value report. That matters, because higher prices have inflated the totals. In August, export volume rose 28.6% while export prices rose 18.7%, China Daily reported, citing the statistics department. Import volume from South Korea rose 166.9% that month.

Even so, growth has outpaced forecasts made earlier in the year. In late September the trade council raised its full-year export growth forecast to 42% to 47%, from more than 20% previously. Nine-month growth of 45.2% sits in the upper half of that range.

The trade boom also underpins the government's economic outlook. In August it raised its 2026 forecast for real gross domestic product growth to 3.5% to 4.5%, from 2.5% to 3.5%, after the economy grew 5.1% in the first half, The Standard reported.

The government expects AI-related investment and steady global growth to keep supporting trade. Its spokesman also listed the risks: conflict in the Middle East, protectionist measures by major economies and risks tied to the rapid expansion of global AI investment.

The department will release volume and price figures for September in mid-November. They will show how much of the 64.9% jump came from more goods moving through Hong Kong, and how much from pricier ones.