Hong Kong facing greater financial crisis than in 2018 or 1999 warns city’s finance chief, as he predicts ‘long-lasting’ impact of coronavirus

Hong Kong’s economy could fare even worse than expected and shrink by between four and seven per cent this financial year because of the serious and sustained impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s finance chief said.

Speaking on Wednesday during a Legislative Council debate on the government’s latest budget, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po revised his previous prediction in February, when he said the city’s gross domestic product this year would fall by 1.5 per cent, or grow by 0.5 per cent at the most.
“The magnitude of Hong Kong’s economic recession in the first quarter could be worse than 2018’s global economic tsunami, or the 1999 Asian financial crisis,” Chan said.Chan also said the pandemic’s impact to the city’s economy had been “more serious and long-lasting” than thought.

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