‘This does not make sense’: Hong Kong No 2 official Eric Chan slams Moody’s ‘smearing’ credit outlook downgrade
- Lowering the city’s credit outlook to negative from stable over issues with mainland China’s economy is part of US-led smear campaign, Eric Chan says
- ‘The mainland economy has a big effect on a lot of countries … Are you going to downgrade the outlook for the rest of the world?’ he adds
Hong Kong’s No 2 official has hit back at global ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service’s move to downgrade the credit outlook for the city, saying it is part of a United States-led smear campaign to curb China’s national development.
Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki said on Thursday that it did not make sense to change the outlook to negative from stable over issues with mainland China’s economy.
“Everyone can tell that these ratings by foreign companies like Moody’s have always been smearing Hong Kong, in my opinion,” he told a radio programme.
“Everyone knows that the mainland economy has a big effect on a lot of countries, it trades with the entire world, not just Hong Kong. Are you going to downgrade the outlook for the rest of the world? This does not make sense.”
Chan added Western countries led by the US had always tried to tarnish the image of Hong Kong and the mainland to constrain the nation’s development.