Hong Kong business people are upbeat about the prospects of growth and will be looking to hire more staff in coming months, a government survey has found. The Census and Statistics Bureau yesterday issued its snapshot of business expectations for the third quarter of this year. It found that participants in every sector of the economy expected to be doing more business this quarter than in the last. There were positive results for hiring intentions from all sectors except construction, where 10 per cent of companies said they expected to shed staff through the quarter. The results tend to bear out the findings of a note on employment in Hong Kong issued by the Bank of East Asia yesterday. 'The positive will outweigh the negative, and the bank expects the unemployment rate to fall to [between] 6 per cent and 6.5 per cent by the year-end, and could reach 5.5 per cent by 2005,' it said. The bank also revised upwards its forecast for gross domestic product growth this year, from 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent. Bank chief economist Paul Tan Sai-on said most of the growth was being driven by booming exports and it would take some time before private consumption began to pick up in Hong Kong. The Census and Statistics Department said 56 per cent of export and import-related businesses expected growth to continue into the quarter. Fifty-three per cent of restaurants and hotels surveyed believed that business would increase this quarter, while 30 per cent believed they would be hiring new staff. The number of Hong Kong companies having difficulty settling their bills, meanwhile, has increased slightly, although fewer of them are having problems collecting payments, according to a quarterly survey by French business information and credit management services provider Coface Frontline. But despite the rise, Coface's general manager, Grace Wong, remains positive on Hong Kong's economic outlook.
