Hong Kong's second-quarter GDP grows 0.6%, but trade war, mass protests to weigh

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's economy grew 0.6% in the second quarter from a year earlier, the government said on Wednesday, but the prolonged Sino-U.S. trade war and growing social unrest are increasingly clouding the outlook for the Asian financial centre.

The pace of growth in April-June was the same as the first quarter, but much less than an average forecast of 1.6% from five economists.

On a quarterly basis, the economy shrank by a seasonally adjusted 0.3%, compared with a revised 1.3% expansion in the first quarter.

The government is forecasting GDP growth of 2-3% this year, versus 3% in 2018.

(Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Donny Kwok; Editing by Kim Coghill)