The continual anti-government protests have induced a grave economy situation for Hong Kong. The latest report technically disclosed the possibility of Hong Kong recession.
Hong Kong’s financial secretary, Paul Chan, recently informed that recession is happening. This is so due to the relentless 5-month protest and it will be nearly impossible to achieve annual economic growth this year.
“The blow to our economy is comprehensive,” said Paul Chan. “The government will be announcing its advance estimates for the third quarter on Thursday. After seeing negative growth in the second quarter, the situation continued in the third quarter, meaning our economy has entered a technical recession.”
Furthermore, Chan is also afraid that Hong Kong will have negative economic growth if this continues. In his opinion, he believed that both the government and the protesters should give violent protests a break and discuss the matter rationally.
“It seems it will be extremely difficult for us to reach full-year economic growth of 0 to 1%. I would not rule out the possibility that the full-year economic growth will be negative… Let citizens return to normal life, let industry and commerce to operate normally, and create more space for rational dialogue.”
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The Current Condition of the Hong Kong Protest That Leads to Recession
The recent updates of the Hong Kong protest indicate that the protests are getting more and more violent. For instance, on Sunday, black-clad and masked protesters appeared on the protest scene and threw petrol bombs at police and set pro-China shops on fire. This was so after the police used tear gas bombs.
Considering the recent update, pointing fingers is no use. Both parties have, though not identically, jeopardized Hong Kong in their very own encounters.
Accordingly, protesters are becoming angrier as China reportedly intervenes the matter more. Hong Kongers do not want the situation to turn out like the 1997 ‘one country, two systems’ which appeared to be not contributory to Hong Kong.
In response to the allegation, China said that it, until this period, does not conduct anything to stir up more trouble to the region. Instead, Beijing accused foreign countries, such as the US and the UK, involvement to establish unfavorable public opinion to China.
Another major factor that fuels up the protesters is the unreasonable policy by the government. For instance, the policy to ban face masks is causing more harm than good to the protesters.
Also Read: Hong Kong Protests Crisis: What Now?
