“The pay trend survey is not Exco’s only consideration,” he said. “Other factors include the state of the economy, changes in the cost of living, the fiscal position of the government and the wishes of the staff side, as well as civil service morale.

“Exco will balance all these factors and make a final decision on civil servants’ pay adjustments this year.”

Leung reiterated he would assess the morale of civil service groups, as well as hear their views, before reporting to Exco.

“We attach great importance to mutual communication with these groups. We have to hear their views first,” he said.

The Pay Trend Survey Committee, chaired by Laurence Li Lu-jen, will validate the survey findings next week before submitting them to the government.

A Civil Service Bureau spokesman said the survey’s tentative results were received on Thursday.

“The Chief Executive in Council will comprehensively and fully consider all relevant factors under the established annual civil service pay adjustment mechanism in determining the annual civil service pay adjustment,” the spokesman said.

Despite the government facing a deficit of HK$101.6 billion for 2023-24, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po earlier rejected calls to cut civil service pay, saying he did not want to have any negative impact on the market.

Instead, Chan’s budget proposed zero growth in the civil service and a 1 per cent cut in recurrent government expenditure for three consecutive years, which altogether could save up to HK$11.7 billion in 2026-27.

According to the Civil Service Bureau, pay and other expenditure for civil servants reached HK$149.1 billion in 2022-23, or about 22 per cent of all government spending. The proportion went down by about 3.3 percentage points from that in 2021-22.

Leung Chau-ting, CEO of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, called on the government to follow the survey’s suggestions and refrain from using the deficit as an excuse to limit the pay rise.

“During the social unrest in 2019, the government relied on us to provide a stable and reliable service,” he said.

“The suggested pay rise between 4 per cent and 5.47 per cent only reflected the market trend. The government shouldn’t use any excuse such as the huge deficit to rein in our pay rise.

“Without a competitive pay package, more people will quit and join the lucrative private market while it will be more difficult to attract talent and professionals to serve the government.”

But Alexa Chow Yee-ping, managing director of recruitment agency ACST Consulting, urged the government to forego the suggested increases, saying they failed to reflect the commercial reality, which saw a rise of between 3.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent this year.

“The pay rise in the private sector is more conservative due to the economic slowdown amid various negative factors including the geopolitical tensions, high interest rates and the property slump on the mainland,” she said.

“In view of the lacklustre economic situation and the huge deficit, the government shouldn’t follow the survey’s suggestions, which had a 2 per cent deviation from the private sector.”

Chow said that if authorities adopted the suggested pay rises, it would pressure some enterprises such as statutory organisations, power companies or bus operators into following suit.

“It will make their operating environment more difficult when they actually can’t afford the pay rise,” she said. “The government should ask itself: can I afford coping with this pay rise?”