“Recent figures also show an increase in exports of goods and overall investment,” he said on his weekly blog. “The country’s economy remains stable and is progressing, providing the most significant support for Hong Kong’s economy.

“Many companies are actively pursuing plans to list in Hong Kong. The string of national policies benefiting Hong Kong is expected to play a supporting role in different economic sectors when they are rolled out successively.”

In the first quarter, the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 2.7 per cent compared with the same period last year, climbing at the lower end of the government’s forecast. On a full-year basis, GDP is expected to grow by between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent, with the advance estimate for the second quarter due on Tuesday.

Chan also pointed to a visit he made with other key financial and regulatory officials to the capital last week. He met the heads of various ministries and commissions, including Xia Baolong, Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs, and Li Yunze, director of the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

Xia said Hong Kong was facing profound shifts in its internal and external environments and called on the city’s leadership to respond to the challenges to “achieve better development through reform”.

The director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office also urged all sectors to be proactive and focused on ensuring the financial hub’s “golden brand” continued to shine.

Chan said in his Sunday blog that the city had to embrace and understand changes.

“We need to grasp the direction of the country’s future policy development and understand its thinking so as to ensure Hong Kong can take advantage of the country’s development momentum,” he said.

“We must make good use of Hong Kong’s status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre to help direct funding projects that can accelerate the cultivation of new productive forces through goal-oriented policies and an efficient market, and attract hi-tech and leading talent from all over the world.”

A government spokesman, however, earlier said the city faced challenges arising from weak consumer spending as Hongkongers headed north to shop and dine as inbound mainland Chinese tourists refrained from making many purchases while visiting the city.

Several economists also cautioned against an overly optimistic GDP prediction, citing continued pressure on the service industries, such as retail and finance.

Hong Hao, chief strategist at hedge fund Grow Investment, said the expected interest rate cut might lead to only a temporary rebound in the stock market.

“It takes a long time for companies to plan to go public,” he said. “Although this change in the market environment is for the better due to a technical rebound caused by loosening liquidity conditions, it may not lead to companies going public immediately.

“[The financial secretary’s] interpretation might be too superficial.”

Hong noted that GDP growth was a lagging indicator of the economy’s overall performance and warned against being “overly optimistic” when interpreting the figures.

Accounting firms PwC and Deloitte recently slashed their projections for capital raised through initial public offerings, with the latter expecting to cut its previous estimate of HK$100 billion for the year by as much as 40 per cent.

Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, said that although exports were supporting Hong Kong’s GDP growth, the situation for other sectors, such as finance and retailing, remained “very challenging”.

He said the “persisting pressure” in consumption and investment could put second-quarter GDP growth at 2.3 per cent.