Hong Kong's labour productivity indices for the whole economy rose at an average annual rate of 3.7% from 2000 to 2007, with the largest growth of 11.2% recorded in the communications service sector.

Releasing the figures in its November digest of statistics today, the Census & Statistics Department said while real output grew an average of 4.9% per year, there was also an average 1.2% rise per annum in person-hours worked during the period.

The growth in the communications sector resulted from a 9% rise in real output and a 2% reduction in labour input, conceivably due to technological improvements and organisation restructuring of telecommunications service providers.

Financing services showed a labour productivity average annual rise of 10%, mainly due to the marked improvement in business performance of this sector in 2006 and 2007.

The indices for import and export trade also grew 8.1% per year on average, while insurance services rose 6.7%. The 4.2% growth recorded in the electricity, gas and water sector was attributed to further capitalisation and automation of certain public utility firms.

Transport and storage also recorded labour productivity growth at an average annual rate of 4%, wholesale and retail trade rose 3% while restaurants and hotels grew 0.8%.

During the same period the indices for the manufacturing sector showed a marginal increase, with the real output and labour input falling 3.7% and 3.9%. The labour productivity for the textiles industry rose 0.7% while the paper products and printing industry had an annual average of 1.9% growth.