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Coronavirus Hong Kong
BusinessBanking & Finance

Hong Kong’s de facto central banker Eddie Yue tests positive for Covid-19, HKMA says

  • HKMA boss Eddie Yue, 57, was found to be infected through a rapid antigen test
  • Yue’s last public appearance was last Thursday (July 28) when he hosted a media briefing after raising the city’s base rate by 75 basis points

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Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) CEO Eddie Yue Wai-man photographed at HKMA in Central on 10 June 2022. Photo: Xiaomei Chen.
Enoch Yiu
Eddie Yue Wai-man, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement by the city’s de facto central bank.

Yue, 57, was found to be infected in a rapid antigen test, HKMA said in a statement.

“He is undergoing isolation in accordance with the guidelines of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health,” the HKMA said.

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Yue last went to work on Monday (August 1), where he “wore masks and followed relevant disease prevention measures at work, including rapid antigen tests conducted regularly,” the HKMA said. “He has no recent travel history.”

The infection by Hong Kong’s most senior banking regulatory official followed a resurgence in the city’s so-called fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, with 4,547 confirmed case reported on Wednesday, 10 per cent more than 4,123 cases a day earlier. The disease has so far claimed 9,517 lives in the city, with 1.36 million positive cases.

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Yue’s last appeared in public on July 28, when he hosted a 30-minute media briefing at the HKMA’s office following a 75-basis point increase in Hong Kong’s base rate for the second consecutive month, in lockstep with an increase of the same amount overnight by the US Federal Reserve.
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