Following is the transcript of remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (May 18):

Reporter: Good morning Secretary. Regards to the uncertainty and the ever changing situation about the US and China trade talks and disputes, is it going forward that it is going to look worse for Hong Kong and do you think it is appropriate for you to slightly adjust our GDP growth forecast so as to better reflect the situation?

Financial Secretary: We are monitoring the situation of the US and China's trade negotiation very closely. The negotiation has been quite bumpy. Although lately there are some negative news, we do think that it is premature to adjust our GDP growth forecast for the year at this stage. We will continue to follow our practice to update this forecast in August. In the meantime, we will monitor the situation very closely and we would like to remind the public that because of these changes in sentiment in the trade negotiation, the financial market may react quite volatilely. So watch out for risk, and be careful when you invest.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, May 18, 2019
Issued at HKT 14:36

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