China News Service, Hong Kong, December 7th. The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Chen Maobo, attended the meeting of the Legislative Council Committee on Financial Affairs on the 7th, said that if the global economy continues to improve next year, the Hong Kong economy is expected to resume positive growth in 2021.
Chen Maobo said that under the influence of the epidemic, Hong Kong's financial system is stable and risk management is rigorous.
The linked exchange rate system and various financial market links are operating well.
The exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar is stable and favors the strong exchange guarantee level.
Since April, there has been a net inflow of nearly US$50 billion in the Hong Kong dollar system. Initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first 10 months have raised 249 billion Hong Kong dollars, an increase of 66% over the same period last year, reflecting investors’ continued interest in Hong Kong’s financial market. Confidence.
Looking forward to next year, Chen Maobo believes that if the global economy continues to improve next year, Hong Kong's economy is expected to resume positive growth in 2021, but the speed and strength of the recovery will be affected by multiple external and internal factors.
In terms of external factors, the mainland economy is expected to grow strongly, providing support for Hong Kong’s exports.
However, he also mentioned that the epidemic is still spreading in many places around the world, which will affect the pace of recovery of local tourism and business trips; there are still many differences between China and the United States, and the relationship between the two countries will still fluctuate, affecting the market’s influence on the global economy. The confidence of the country; the development of the geopolitical situation must also be closely observed.
In terms of internal factors, Chen Maobo believes that as long as the epidemic is under control and the social environment remains safe and stable, local economic activities should be able to resume momentum next year.
He said that the SAR government will continue to work hard to control the epidemic and create an environment conducive to economic recovery.
In addition, in terms of the property market, the residential market sentiment was slightly softened by the third wave of local epidemics in July and early August.
However, as the epidemic eased, the property market has stabilized since September.
From July to November, the average monthly residential transaction was about 5,200, and the average monthly transaction in the first half of the year was about 4,500.
In terms of property prices, residential prices fell by about 1% between June and October; residential prices in October this year remained unchanged compared to the end of last year, and were about 4% lower than the recent high in May last year.
Chen Maobo pointed out that despite adjustments in the residential property market in recent years, real housing demand and low interest rates have kept property prices high. Compared with the level before the introduction of demand management measures in 2010, the current residential property prices still have a cumulative increase of more than double. Even though Hong Kong’s economy continued to show negative growth for five quarters, residential property prices fell by less than 3% during the period, reflecting that the residential market is still strong and residential prices are still far above the affordable level of ordinary citizens. He believes that these data and trends show that at this stage there is no room for relaxing the demand management measures in the residential property market. (Finish)