The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) real growth rate for the first half of 2007 in Hong Kong has been revised slightly downwards from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent, and for 2006, from 6.9 percent to 6.8 percent, the statistics department of Hong Kong said Thursday.

The revision was due to the introduction of the chain volume measures of GDP to replace the previous constant price measures, said the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Compared with the previous constant price approach where the price structure as weights for aggregating the volume estimates of the GDP components is updated only once every several years, the new calculation method of chain volume measure is a more enhanced approach, as the price structure is updated every year, said the department.

"This provides a better measure of GDP growth in real terms," the department said.

In implementing the new calculation method for the volume measure of GDP, it provided a better measure of the real growth rate of GDP and enhanced the international comparability of Hong Kong's GDP statistics, the department said.

To maintain comparability of the data series, backdating of historical series of the volume measures of GDP and its components based on the new calculation method has been made, the department said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)