Now, as Hong Kong awaits confirmation of an annual economic contraction with the fourth-quarter reading due Monday, China’s deadly virus outbreak threatens to extend that losing streak into 2020. The economy was already in recession in 2019, shrinking in the second and third quarters, and that is forecast to have continued in the final three months of the year.
(Feb 3): The hits just keep coming for Hong Kong.
In 2019 there was the escalating US-China trade war, which squeezed exports. Then came violent protests beginning mid-year, with street-fighting between police and protesters driving away tourists and shoppers, hurting the services industries, and tipping the economy into its first contraction in a decade.
