Hong Kong’s economy plunges into recession
Hong Kong’s economy officially fell into recession in the third quarter after enduring nearly five months of protests and a persistent trade war between the United States and China.
The economy dropped by 3.2 percent in the three months ending in September compared with the quarter that ended in June, Hong Kong officials said on Thursday. It was the worst economic performance for the city since the global financial crisis a decade ago and the strongest signal yet of the damage caused by political unrest.
“The blow to Hong Kong economy is multifaceted,” Paul Chan, the city’s financial secretary, wrote in a blog post. He said that a full year contraction was also “very likely.”
The performance marked the second consecutive quarter that the territory’s economy shrank, meeting the formal definition of a recession. In the quarter that ended in June, the economy contracted 0.4 percent from the first three months of the year.
Weekends in Hong Kong are now punctuated with public transport shutdowns, road blockages and the early closure of the malls and luxury stores that were once part of the engine that keeps the city humming.
Tourists that traveled to Hong Kong from mainland China to fill their empty suitcases are almost all gone. During China’s main holiday week in early October, visitors plummeted by 55 percent from the year before.
Hong Kong’s growth has also been buffeted by a protracted trade war between China and the United States and is part of a broader global economic slowdown that has raised fears of recession in other major economies, including Germany and Britain.
The protests that have seized Hong Kong continued on Thursday, with demonstrators using the city’s Halloween demonstrations to challenge a recent ban on masks at public gatherings by the authorities.
Early on Thursday evening, the mood in Lan Kwai Fong, a rowdy night life district known for its booze-soaked Halloween parties, was noticeably muted. While The streets were still filled with revelers in costumes, compared to years past, there were fewer Halloween decorations and more security and journalists.
At around 7 p.m., dozens of protesters wearing masks of government leaders like Xi Jinping and Carrie Lam gathered in the district. Amid blaring music from nearby bars, the protesters began shouting slogans like “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”
Not long after, a tense standoff formed between police and protesters.
Officers soon declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and took the nearly unprecedented step of ordering an immediate evacuation of the district.
Later in the evening, with the area blocked off, a reveler dressed as Snow White could be seen coughing in the tear gas as tourists took selfies.
The night included multiple clashes between protesters and police around the city. Police fired canisters of tear gas at protesters outside the Mong Kok police station in the Prince Edward district, and later in the heart of the central business district, which includes Lan Kwai Fong.
The protest movement began as a fight over a now-withdrawn extradition bill and has expanded its demands to include free elections and an independent investigation into the police’s use of force. But after agreeing to withdraw the extradition bill, the government has since refused to budge on other demands, summed up by protesters under the slogan “five demands, not one less.”
Dozens of protesters have since been arrested on charges of violating the prohibition.