Standard Chartered: Asia in ‘different place’ to the West as China’s economy gathers momentum
- Standard Chartered’s Asian markets are not facing the same inflation battles as their Western counterparts as they emerge from the pandemic, CFO Andy Halford says
- Standard Chartered among lenders that benefited from a ‘flight to safety’ during banking sector turmoil in the first quarter
Markets in Standard Chartered’s footprint, particularly in Asia, are not facing the same inflationary pressures as Western economies and are expected to post much higher economic growth over the next two years as China’s economy reopens, Halford said.
“There is just genuinely a sense there that things are more on the up,” Halford told the Post.
“Hong Kong in particular, prior to December when the border was closed, was suffering from a lack of transference of people,” he said. “They’ve seen quite a pickup, even in a three- or four-month period, of volumes albeit the level of air travel in and out of China is low compared to pre-Covid levels. Hence, that is why our management team in Hong Kong would be quite encouraged by the progression over the next several quarters.”
14:45
An unwinnable conflict? The US-China trade war, 5 years on
“We have had quite the significant uptick in new account openings in both China and Hong Kong in the early part of this year. Financially, its takes a lot of new customers to sign up over several months for it to make an impact in a dollar sense,” Halford said. “That is a lead indicator for us and it is one, at this point in time, seems to be moving forward in a quite positive way.”