Hong Kong economy to shrink 2-3pc in 2009
Hong Kong's economy will shrink by two to three percent in 2009, the first annual contraction since the city was battered a decade ago by the Asian crisis, the financial secretary said Wednesday.
John Tsang offered a gloomy economic outlook for the southern Chinese financial hub in his annual budget speech, saying consumer spending, exports and the property sector had also been badly hit by the global financial crisis.
"This once-in-a-century financial turmoil has spread from the financial markets to the real economy, leading to a synchronised global recession," Tsang told lawmakers.
"Being a small, open economy, Hong Kong will inevitably be hit by the turmoil."
Hong Kong tumbled into recession in the third quarter of 2008, but the situation worsened in the fourth quarter, with gross domestic product shrinking 2.5 percent year-on-year, Tsang said.
The fourth quarter drop was even worse than that seen when the deadly SARS epidemic spread fear throughout the city of seven million people in 2003.
Comments