Officials, Industry Leaders Talk Up HK's Recovering Economy

"Spring has arrived for Hong Kong's capital markets," Mr Qi Bin, a deputy director at Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong, declared at the HSBC Global Investment Summit on March 25.

- Magdalene Fung

Hong Kong trotted out its top officials to project confidence to the international audience at major business forums in the past week, but the verdict is still out on whether its recovering economy has turned the corner.

Chief Executive John Lee touted Hong Kong's latest ranking as Asia's top financial centre in a global index when he spoke at the Boao Forum for Asia in mainland China's Hainan province on March 27.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan talked up the city's economic achievements over the past year at the Milken Institute's Global Investors' Symposium on March 24.

Industry leaders, too, expressed optimism that "Hong Kong is back," with more opportunities for closer business and international cooperation.

But at the same time, they struck a cautious note on the challenges that lie ahead amid an increasingly complex global landscape.

At the Milken and HSBC conferences, Mr Chan, the city's No. 2 official, urged people not to keep looking at Hong Kong "from the rear-view mirror" but to focus instead on the future.

On paper, the signs are encouraging.

Mr Chan cited Hong Kong's "remarkable resilience" that saw its economy grow by 2.5 per cent over the past year despite external headwinds.

He noted that the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index had surged 20 per cent in the last three months and that its initial public offering (IPO) market had staged a comeback to rank fourth globally after raising US$11 billion (S$14.7 billion) in 2024.

Battered by Covid-19 restrictions and a period of anti-government protests, Hong Kong's economy shrank in three of the four years between 2019 and 2022. It grew 3.2 per cent from a low base in 2023. The stock market hit a 13-year low in late 2022 and deal-making had also slowed amid recent years of high interest rates and flagging global growth.