Hong Kong crashes into recession as protests hit economy
Hong Kong’s economy contracted sharply in the third quarter as it entered a recession, exceeding economists’ worst estimates of the damage from nearly five months of protests.
Third-quarter gross domestic product retreated 3.2% from the previous three months, after a 0.4% contraction in the second quarter. That’s the worst slump since 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Two consecutive periods of negative growth mean Hong Kong has fallen into a technical recession.
The economic debate now is focused on how long the downturn will last, if recent glimmers of stabilization point to a bottom, and if the U.S.-China trade war and the demonstrations have done lasting damage. Financial Secretary Paul Chan said this week that a full-year economic contraction is “very likely.”
“It’s completely driven by social events, and this is something the government needs to consider,” said Raymond Yeung, chief Greater China economist with Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “It’s obviously comparable to the global financial crisis. We have a very similar situation that we don’t know when it’s going to end.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/hong-kong-crashes-into-recession-as-protests-hit-economy/ar-AAJBNa3?li=BBnbfcL
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