The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government helped nearly 393,000 people get rid of poverty in 2019
Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, December 23 (Reporter Zhu Yuxuan) The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government released the "Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report 2019" on the 23rd. According to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's permanent cash policy, nearly 393,000 people have been lifted out of poverty and the poverty rate in 2019 has fallen by 5.6. Percentage points.
The Office of the Economic Adviser of the Special Administrative Region Government and the Census and Statistics Department of the Special Administrative Region Government update and analyze poverty data based on the poverty line analysis framework established by the Hong Kong Commission for Poverty Alleviation and the "General Household Survey" of the Census and Statistics Department.
This is the eighth time since the official poverty line was first announced in 2013, Hong Kong’s poverty analysis has been updated annually.
The report shows that in 2019, the number of poor people after the permanent cash policy of the SAR government intervened was 1.0978 million, and the poverty rate was 15.8%.
Before the policy intervention, the poor population was 1,490,700, and the poverty rate was 21.4%. This shows that the constant cash policy successfully lifted 392,900 people out of poverty.
According to the analysis of the report, Hong Kong was hit by both local social events and Sino-US trade frictions in 2019. The economy fell into recession for the first time since 2009, and the labor market weakened significantly in the second half of 2019.
Severely disrupted by local social events, consumer and tourism-related industries have been hit hard, involving many lower-skilled jobs, so the impact on grassroots families is quite obvious.
Coupled with the accelerated aging of the population and the continued miniaturization of households, poverty indicators are under unprecedented upward pressure.