On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s finance chief Paul Chan announced the city’s budget for the 2024-2025 season. Paul said that last year, the city’s economy grew by 3.2% and inflation is moderate which stood at 1.7%. One of the biggest moves he made was in the beginning, with a larger-than-expected move to scrap all property curbs. The move is helpful for an ailing property market, which has been seeing bad sales and lower prices in the past few months. Another larger-than-expected announcement, the city has a deficit of HKD 101.7 billion, twice the estimated value by economists. Chan also announced a plan of HKD 1.1 billion to soft-sell the city through tourism and events, an increase in the tax rate to 16% for the highest income earners, and the tobacco tax by 8 cents, as well as tax breaks for EV buyers. Disappointingly for some, the popular consumption vouchers scheme will not come back due to the large deficit.
I attended the press conference (Twice in under five months!) and here is what I captured.