2019/12/02

Hong Kong Awaits ‘Enormous’ Retail Hit as Chaos Cripples Economy

Hong Kong is counting the economic cost of almost six months of political unrest, with the city expected to post its first budget deficit since the early 2000s. Financial Secretary Paul Chan made the announcement to lawmakers Monday, explaining that the ongoing turmoil has hurt economic growth by some 2 percentage points this year. There’s more bad news coming Monday: Retail sales data for October due later will show a “very enormous” decline, Chan said. Arrivals from China plunged 45.9% from a year earlier in October, the biggest decline on record, meaning that the annual “Golden Week” holiday in mainland China failed to translate into a tourist bump for local retailers. Overall, visitors to Hong Kong fell almost 44% in the month.- Bloomberg