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Exclusive | Hong Kong faces gloomy and uncertain economic future, say two of city’s senior officials
- Executive Council convenor Bernard Chan says geopolitical events will continue to impact immediate future
- Commerce chief Edward Yau hints at more job losses
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Shrinking growth, more job losses, and companies moving their activities elsewhere as social unrest and the US-China trade war continue to take their toll – that is the gloomy prediction for the new year from two of the city’s senior leaders.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Executive Council convenor Bernard Chan said complex geopolitical issues, including next month’s presidential election in Taiwan, would influence Hong Kong’s immediate economic future.
Speaking in the same interview, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah said he could see “two cyclones” hitting the city in the unrest at home and the trade war abroad, which had combined to knock 3 per cent off the city’s gross domestic product.
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“We are bad, but that is not the end of the world,” Yau said. “One may say we are not yet out of the woods. I can see these two cyclones hitting us – one is the trade war which is easing at least, but the local unrest, we need to tackle it by ourselves; the Hong Kong government and the wider community.”
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The anti-government protests that have swept the city since June, combined with the trade war and the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in Washington in November have created an unprecedented sense of unease. President Xi Jinping has called the situation the most critical and complicated since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
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