Burdened by over five months of civil unrest, Hong Kong has fallen into a recession, the city's financial secretary said Sunday.
"The economy has entered a technical recession, and the negative growth rate has significantly expanded," Secretary Paul Chan wrote in a blog post. "The blow to our economy is comprehensive."
Chan added that official quarterly GDP figures would be released Thursday, but that preliminary analysis shows consecutive economic contractions. It will be "extremely difficult," he wrote, for Hong Kong to reach its previously forecasted growth rate.
The bleak report coincided with chaotic demonstrations over the weekend that saw shops set ablaze and petrol bombs thrown at police, who responded heavily with water cannons and tear gas. In a statement Monday, police said that protesters overstepped the "bottom line of any civilized society." Unrest in Hong Kong, which first broke in June in opposition to a proposed extradition bill, has escalated significantly in recent months as residents continue to protest China's growing influence over the city and call for more democratic rights.
Chan on Sunday called on demonstrators to keep order and allow industry and commerce to operate freely. "Our society and the economy need to take a breather and need to get back on the road," he wrote.
<i>Police and protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photo Credit: JEROME FAVRE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock</i>
As a Chinese special administrative region since 1997, Hong Kong has enjoyed relative autonomy from Beijing in recent decades and has grown into one of the world's most significant financial and commercial hubs. In 2018, Hong Kong was home to the highest number of ultrawealthy ($30 million or more net worth) residents of any city in the world, according to Wealth-X's annual report. New York surpassed Hong Kong just slightly in 2019.
Earlier this month, Hong Kong's richest resident, Li Ka-shing, donated 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($128 million) to support local business affected by the city's "unprecedented challenges."
"I hope that HK$1 billion donation will spark more support for the embattled [Small and Medium Enterprises]," Li said in a statement. "All suggestions are welcome and let's work together during these difficult times."
The Hong Kong government has also implemented a series of measures to help alleviate financial pains. Secretary Chan announced earlier this month a 19 billion Hong Kong dollar ($2.4 billion) relief package, which included significant rent reductions.
In announcing the recession Sunday, Chan cited plummeting tourism and retail sales figures. The number of visitors to Hong Kong fell by 37 percent in August and September, and by 50 percent in the first half of October. Tourism's decline constitutes an "emergency," Chan wrote. The decline of retail sales volume fell by 13.1 percent in July to 25.3 percent in August.
"We will continue to closely monitor the external economic situation and the political and economic situation in Hong Kong and try our best to further study the relief measures," Chan added in his Sunday blog post.
Investors, however, seem to be sticking with Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Hang Seng Index remains up more than 4 percent year-to-date.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to “orchestrate a nationwide campaign” against TikTok, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Mortgage rates reach sky-high levels amid the spring prime time for house buying. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, joined Cheddar News to talk about what buyers should be looking for this season. “The only way to make affordability better is to assure that we have increased supply assure that the home builders are not facing any artificial barriers," he said. "We need to construct more homes, also construct more apartment buildings, because rents are rising very fast for the renters."
A federal judge has given the go-ahead for a class-action lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta over allegations it exaggerated its advertising reach and overcharged advertisers. Jon Swartz, a senior reporter for MarketWatch, joined Cheddar News to give his take on the impact the legal action might have on the social media giant. "Remember Facebook is the ultimate Teflon company in tech. FTC investigates, it's constantly being accused of anything from the left to the right in terms of misinformation, yet it continues because it's the biggest brand of its kind and number one in terms of what it tries to do. It continues to benefit," he said. "So it's going to take something magnificent, not a class action suit, but something bigger and beyond that to knock them off the rails."
If you have a minute, Protégé thinks it might be enough to get your talent noticed by stars and industry movers like DJ Khaled. Jackson Jhin, co-founder and CEO of the platform, talked to Cheddar about how the services might better democratize access to performing arts like music and acting. "You have 60 seconds to send a video to the best experts in each industry and send it to people who otherwise would have been inaccessible," he noted. For a wide-ranging fee, applicants can submit their work to garner feedback from folks like Jason Alexander or Scooter Braun — with a money-back guarantee, according to Jhin.
Job openings hovered at a near-record level in February, little changed from the previous month, continuing a trend that Federal Reserve officials see as a driver of inflation.
Ron Carson, CEO and Founder of Carson Wealth, sits down with Cheddar's Hena Doba to share how the blueprinting process keeps him on track to achieve goals and live life by his own design.
Around 4.4 Million Americans have either quit their jobs or changed them this past February. The high turnover comes as the Bureau of Labor reported that there were more than 11.3 million job openings despite 6.7 million people getting hired.
The office real estate market might be in trouble, as vacancy rates in major cities remain across the country, even as COVID restrictions continue to fall away. Ryan Severino, the chief economist for real estate and investment management firm JLL, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the latest office trends and why some may be concerning for the broader economy. "There are knock-on ramifications for a lot of the ancillary industries that support office workers," he said. "If you think about coffee shops, places that someone might go out to get lunch or a drink or dinner after work, those are obviously still feeling the brunt of people not being physically back in office spaces the way that they were before the pandemic."
Catching you up on what you need to know on March 30, 2022, with updates on what is happening in Kyiv, the FDA releases plans for a fourth dose of COVID vaccines, COVID subvariant BA.2 becomes dominant variant in the U.S., employees at Conde Nast form a union, and more.
