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| 2018/04/20 | Beware of Discussions with Other Organisations on Employment Costs Businesses seeking to control their salary and other employee-related costs through discussions with other businesses are at risk of committing a serious infringement of the Competition Ordinance (CO), according to guidelines issued recently by Hong Kong’s Competition Commission. |
| 2018/03/16 | Impact of U.S. Rate Hikes Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell painted a relatively optimistic picture of the U.S. economy in his recent report to Congress, which markets interpreted as a hint that more interest rate hikes are on the cards. It was his first public appearance since he took over from Janet Yellen as head of the U.S. central bank in early February. |
| 2018/03/07 | Exports, Imports Jump in January Hong Kong’s exports and imports both saw marked growth in January, according to the latest figures from the Census and Statistics Department. |
| 2018/02/08 | Retail Recovery Beds In Retail sales in December increased solidly compared with a year earlier, according to the latest figures released by the Census and Statistics Department, continuing a recovery that bodes well for the sector in 2018. |
| 2018/01/10 | Keeping Credit Under Control After years of robust credit growth in the Mainland, the authorities may become more active in reducing the highly leveraged nature of the Chinese economy in 2018. The deleveraging process will likely proceed with the introduction of policy measures targeted at reducing the reliance on debt. |
| 2017/12/15 | Tourism Industries Will See Support in 2018, but Require Repositioning for the Longer Term Over the past decade, Hong Kong’s retail sales and incoming visitor trends have moved in tandem, and retailers have benefited from the influx of tourists (see Chart 1).[1] However, given the evolving behaviours of visitors, Hong Kong must diversify its strengths from merely being a shopping paradise if it wishes to remain an attractive destination. |
| 2017/12/01 | Buoyant U.S. Economic Trends Set to Continue The U.S. economy has remained resilient through the first 11 months of this year. Stronger business investment and consumer sentiment have buoyed the world’s largest economy. Despite the absence of inflationary pressure, the strong economic performance should induce the Federal Reserve (Fed) to continue its steady pace of lifting interest rates. |
| 2017/10/31 | Overview of the 19th National Congress At the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on 18 October, President Xi shared his vision to make the country a global economic leader by 2050, as he envisioned that such development would be sustained by a thriving middle class, among other favourable factors. |
| 2017/09/29 | More Macro-prudential Measures Expected amidst Stabilised Growth in the Mainland The Chinese economy continued to perform steadily in the third quarter, despite slight moderations in retail sales and fixed asset investment (FAI) growth rates. While it is unlikely to see downside surprises in economic data in the near term, much policy attention may turn to taming the runaway property prices. |
| 2017/09/08 | Retail Market Looking Up, Despite Lingering Uncertainties Hong Kong’s retail sector finally has something to cheer about after facing years of steady declining sales. Moderate growth in the inbound tourism sector in the past few months has also caused retail sales to pick up as well (see Chart 1). However, lingering uncertainties include the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) potential moves to reduce its balance sheet later this month, which could cause the USD – and hence HKD – to strengthen, which might make Hong Kong less attractive to tourists. Such uncertainties would consequently impact the retail market. |