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Hong Kong’s economy shrinks 1.2 per cent after battering from protests and fears over coronavirus
- Preliminary gross domestic product decreased 2.9 per cent in the fourth quarter year on year
- Violence took a further heavy toll on economic sentiment as well as consumption- and tourism-related activities, government said
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Hong Kong’s battered economy shrank 1.2 per cent last year from 2018, the first annual contraction in a decade, with warnings of more beatings to come as the city suffered the double whammy of months of political unrest and the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 2.9 per cent in the fourth quarter year on year, the Census and Statistics Department revealed on Monday. In the third quarter, GDP fell 2.8 per cent from a year earlier.
A government spokesman said the economic outlook for this year would hinge on how the social unrest, coronavirus infection in Hong Kong and US-China trade relations developed, blaming the anti-government protests for the downturn.
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“The local social incidents with violence during the quarter took a further heavy toll on economic sentiment as well as consumption- and tourism-related activities,” he said.
“The outlook for the Hong Kong economy in 2020 is subject to high uncertainties … It also depends much on the development of the novel coronavirus infection in Hong Kong and Asia, which could further weigh on economic sentiment, consumption- and tourism-related activities and even economic performance of some Asian economies.”
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