HK - Economic Data & News 01 (May 08 - Sep 14)

[millionairemind]

December 29, 2008, 8.45 pm (Singapore time)

Latest update
HK exports drop 5.3% in November

HONG KONG - Hong Kong exports dropped 5.3 per cent year-on-year in November on the back of the global economic slowdown, government data released on Monday showed.

The figure was a drastic decline from the 9.4 per cent year-on-year increase in October, the Census and Statistics Department said in a statement.

The value of total exported goods, mainly produced in southern China's factory belt, rose to HK$231.2 billion (US$29.6 billion), the figures showed.

The value of imported goods decreased by 7.9 per cent on a year earlier to HK$239.3 billion in November, after a year-on-year increase of 11.3 per cent in October.

The visible trade deficit was HK$8.2 billion, equivalent to 3.4 per cent of the value of imports, the figures showed.

A government spokesman said that the performance of merchandise exports worsened in November, against the background of the recession in the advanced economies and the deteriorating economic conditions in Asia as well as in the emerging markets.

'The synchronised global economic downturn is beginning to take its toll on world trade. The near-term outlook for Hong Kong's exports is bound to be negatively affected,' he said, adding the government would monitor the situation closely. -- AFP

[millionairemind]

January 15, 2009, 3.29 pm (Singapore time)

HK sees unemployment rising above 4% in Q4
HONG KONG - Hong Kong's unemployment rate will rise to 4 per cent or above in the fourth quarter and there would be layoffs and bankruptcies after this month's Chinese New Year holiday, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Thursday.

Mr Tsang told legislators that Hong Kong had been severely hit by the financial crisis and exports would experience a double-digit decline.

Hong Kong's unemployment rate climed to 3.8 per cent in the September-November period as companies hit by the global economic downturn shed staff to cut costs. -- REUTERS

[millionairemind]

Jan 15, 2009
HK's CE warns of layoffs
HONG KONG - HONG Kong's chief executive Donald Tsang said Thursday the city faced a bleak economic outlook this year, adding that he expected more companies to close after the Lunar New Year.

During his first question-and-answer session with lawmakers this year, he said 'negative economic growth seems inevitable' in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown.

Mr Tsang told legislators Hong Kong's jobless rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 was above four per cent, adding that employment was a major challenge for the government.

'I am worried about the economic outlook,' he said. 'After the Chinese New Year, the market will become relatively weak and a wave of layoffs and corporate closures will take place,' he added.

Hong Kong slipped into recession in the third quarter of 2008 as the city's two pillars of financial services and exports were slammed by the credit crisis and a slowdown in demand from Europe and the United States.

The city's jobless rate rose to 3.8 per cent in the three months period to the end of November. -- AFP

[millionairemind]

January 20, 2009, 12.14 pm (Singapore time)

Morgan Stanley says HK GDP to shrink 3.8% in 09

HONG KONG - Morgan Stanley has cut its 2009 GDP forecast for Hong Kong to -3.8 per cent, saying trade flows would shrink by more than 10 per cent and service exports would contract for the first time since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

It sees a tepid recovery in 2010, projecting 2.5 per cent growth for the year.

The 2009 forecast is the lowest among investment banks and the first downgrade since Chief Executive Donald Tsang said last week that December exports from Hong Kong fell at a double-digit rate from a year earlier, for the first time in seven years and much more sharply than expected.

As an open economy that relies on trade and finance, Hong Kong is being hit hard by the global financial crisis and economic downturn. It tipped into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and Mr Tsang on Monday said GDP would shrink in the first half of this year.

Morgan Stanley forecasts a more than 5 per cent contraction in the first half. It previously forecast a 1.2 per cent contraction in 2009 gross domestic product but now sees a worsening global environment. It has slashed its estimate for economic growth in China this year to 5.5 per cent, less than half the 13 per cent expansion in 2007.

Hong Kong is a re-export centre for China and in the past few years has benefited from strong tourism from China and Chinese companies' growing demand for financial and other services.

While a 3.8 per cent GDP contraction would be the economy's worst performance since a 6 per cent decline in 1998 as a result of the Asian financial crisis, Morgan Stanley said economic fundamentals today were much sounder. It categorises the current downturn as a cyclical adjustment, in contrast to a structural adjustment between 1998 and 2003. -- REUTERS

[winston]

200b yuan swap deal to bolster financial stability

Beijing and Hong Kong have signed a 200 billion yuan (HK$226.2 billion) swap agreement as part of mainland measures to help the city though the economic crisis, the central bank said.

''It will ... strengthen the outside world's confidence in the financial stability of Hong Kong,'' the People's Bank of China said of the three-year agreement.

China last month promised a currency swap agreement with Hong Kong as Premier Wen Jiabao vowed ''strong backup'' for the city.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[millionairemind]

January 21, 2009, 8.07 pm (Singapore time)

Hong Kong Exchange Fund reveals heavy loss in 2008

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Exchange Fund recorded a net loss of HK$74.9 billion (US$9.6 billion) in 2008, as turmoil on global stock markets battered its investments, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The fund, which is partly used to back the Hong Kong dollar's link to the greenback, last year recorded a negative investment return of 5.6 per cent, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a statement.

It is the fund's first negative annual return since records began in 1994.

The fund had made a record return of HK$142.2 billion in 2007, figures released by the HKMA showed.

HKMA chief executive Joseph Yam said the loss was due to exceptional turbulence in equity markets during 2008.

'The world financial crisis weighed heavily on global business sentiment and investor confidence,' he said.

'Following a very difficult third quarter, the Exchange Fund made a positive return in the fourth quarter as markets stabilised somewhat,' he added.

Mr Yam said he expected the investment environment to continue to be difficult this year.

Much of the fund was invested in Hong Kong shares. The benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 48.3 per cent in 2008. -- AFP

[winston]

Hong Kong Draws Bad Fortune for Year of Ox, Morning Post Says By Kelvin Wong

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong faces a turbulent Year of the Ox after a city representative drew the “worst possible” fortune stick in an annual soothsaying ceremony to mark the lunar new year, the South China Morning Post reported.

The draw showed the city “couldn’t isolate itself from the global economic turbulence,” the Hong Kong-based newspaper said, citing an unidentified fortune-teller at the Taoist Che Kung temple who read the stick. Hongkongers should nevertheless be “cautiously optimistic,” he said.

Lau Wong-fat, an adviser to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang and head of a body representing indigenous villagers, drew the stick on behalf of the city, the Post said. The last time the stick was drawn was in 1992, it said.

Meanwhile, a barge used to launch fireworks for the Lunar New Year display above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor caught fire near the end of the 23-minute spectacle, the paper said. The barge’s two crewmen were rescued and no one was hurt, it added.

[millionairemind]

January 29, 2009, 4.54 pm (Singapore time)

HK Dec exports fall 11.4%

Hong Kong's total exports in December fell 11.4 per cent from a year earlier in value terms.

Total exports in the three months to end-December were 4.8 per cent lower than three months earlier, after adjustment for seasonal patterns, the government said on Thursday. -- REUTERS

[millionairemind]

Feb 3, 2009
Grads face job crunch in HK

HONG KONG - A SHRINKING job market in Hong Kong has dashed the dreams of many mainland graduates to find work in the city. 'The present economic slump has affected local employers' desire to hire mainland graduates,' said Mr Geng Chunya, president of the Hong Kong Association of Mainland Graduates.

Hong Kong has become a more attractive destination for mainland job-seekers following the passage in June of new legislation that allows Chinese graduates to work in Hong Kong without a visa for 12 months.

But of the 6,500 mainland graduates who headed to Hong Kong last year, only a-fifth to a-quarter of them managed to clinch a job in the city.

This figure is set to drop further, said Mr Geng.

Economists at HSBC expect unemployment in Asia excluding Japan to rise more than a full percentage point this year to 5.9 per cent, with Hong Kong and China accounting for most of the increase, reported Reuters.

Chinese officials, spurred by the global financial crisis that has slowed economic growth and nervous about the prospects of more than 1.5 million unemployed college graduates, have stepped up spending and bolstered programmes to help graduates get jobs.

Unemployment among recent college graduates stands at 12 per cent, according to government statistics, nearly triple the overall unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent at the end of December, itself the highest in five years.

Finding work for new graduates will be one of China's top priorities, the State Council or the Cabinet has said.

In Shanghai this month, Mayor Han Zheng announced a job stimulus package to help 213,000 new graduates, offering to pay for vocational training and to assist in setting up internships if jobs can?t be found.

A jobs programme launched in 2006 by top party officials to send graduates to the countryside is also getting a boost. So far, 78,000 graduates have signed three-year contracts to participate in the programme, but more are scheduled to be enlisted this year, officials said.

The Beijing municipal government announced last month that an additional 3,000 local college graduates will work as village officials this year, while Guangdong province has announced that all graduates who want government jobs will have to first work or train in rural villages. -- China Daily/Asia News Network.

[winston]

Billionaire population of Hong Kong halved by global slump
Business News

Hong Kong - The number of billionaires in Hong Kong has plunged by more than 50 per cent in the past year as the superwealthy are hammered by the global economic downturn, a survey found Thursday.

There were 19 US-dollar billionaires at the beginning of 2009 compared with 40 at the same time last year, the annual 'rich list' compiled by Forbes Asia magazine found.

Hong Kong's richest man, 80-year-old property tycoon Li Ka-shing, held on to his number one ranking but saw his wealth tumble by more than a half to 16.2 billion US dollars, the study found.

The Kwok family, owner of Sun Hung Kai Properties, stayed second but saw its net worth plummet 55 per cent to 10.8 billion US dollars. In third place was Lee Shau Kee, 81, owner of Henderson Land, who saw his fortune fall from 14 billion to 9 billion US dollars.

The biggest loser, however, was Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, 87, whose net worth nosedived 89 per cent to 1 billion US dollars, sending him crashing from fifth in last year's list to 19th place.

One upside of the recession is that it has become a lot easier to get on the rich list with the minimum net worth to achieve a ranking falling from 1 billion US dollars last year to 485 million US dollars this year.

'Hong Kong's openness has helped it thrive in good times,' said Russell Flannery, a senior editor with Forbes. 'Yet, today, when so many major economies in the world are in recession, it's tough for Hong Kong to avoid taking a hit along with everyone else.'

Hong Kong, which once boasted the largest per-capita number of Rolls Royce cars, is one of the world's wealthiest - and most expensive - cities and is home to some of Asia's richest tycoons.