HSBC sees China economy growing 7% this year despite sell-off

[LONDON] HSBC said it still expected China's economy to grow by about 7 per cent this year despite the country's recent stock market sell-off, which it said would have a limited impact on its revenues.

"We're still reasonably confident that Chinese economic growth will be at the numbers we thought previously," said HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver. "While we probably haven't fully seen the impact of bad debts from the sell-off in the stock market ... we're still very much looking for 7 percent or 7.1 percent GDP growth this year for China."

HSBC reported a jump in wealth management and equities revenues in the first half of this year, helped by a boom in Hong Kong. Gulliver said those area could have a more muted performance in the third quarter due to the China stock market sell-off, but he said the impact would be limited.

REUTERS