Statement of HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam on the ‘National Security Legislation’ issue

​In response to the deliberation by the National People’s Congress (NPC) of a draft Decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security (“the Decision”), the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, who is attending the opening ceremony of the third session…

Economic situation Q1 of 2020 + latest GDP & price forecasts

On 15 May the HKgov released the First Quarter Economic Report 2020, together with the revised figures on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2020.The Government Economist, Mr Andrew Au, described the economic situation in the first quarter of 2020 and the latest GDP and price forecasts for 2020. Read all about…

Provisional statistics of retail sales for March 2020

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released the latest figures on retail sales today (May 5). The value of total retail sales in March 2020, provisionally estimated at $23.0 billion, decreased by 42.0% compared with the same month in 2019. The revised estimate of the combined value of total retail sales in January and February…

More info on ESS (Employment Support Scheme)

Today we received more information on the previously announced economic support initiative by the HKgov, called ESS (Employment Support Scheme). The new information provided now includes a starting date for applications: 25 May 2020. Generally speaking, with the exception of ineligible employers (mainly organisations whose employees’ salaries are not affected by the epidemic, for example,…