Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, February 26 (Reporter Su Wanming) The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Chen Maobo, said on the 26th that Hong Kong's economy will face great internal and external challenges in 2020. It is predicted that the real growth of the Hong Kong economy in 2020 will be -1.5% to 0.5%.
Chen Maobo released the 2020/2021 fiscal year budget of the SAR government in the SAR Legislative Council. He said that Hong Kong's economy has been quite weak in the first half of 2019. Driven by many unfavorable factors, the third quarter has entered a recession and contracted 1.2% for the whole year. This is the first annual decline since the global economic recession in 2009.
Entering 2020, the new coronavirus epidemic has severely hit Hong Kong's economic activity and atmosphere. The tourism and consumer-related industries that have already been hit hard by the social turmoil are facing a greater impact and are entering a severe winter.
Chen Maobo said that although the impact of the epidemic on Hong Kong's economy may be greater in the short term than in SARS in 2003 and the labor market will also face tremendous pressure, Hong Kong's economic fundamentals are solid and core competitiveness will not be shaken as a result. After the epidemic, Hong Kong's economy will definitely recover.