Hong Kong’s financial secretary is stuck between a pandemic rock and an economic hard place. Paul Chan on Wednesday laid out a budget for the financial year starting in April dedicating HK$170 billion ($22 billion), roughly equivalent to 6% of annual economic output, to alleviating new pandemic restrictions as infections cross 8,000 per day. The plan reflects the city’s struggle to balance conflicting priorities.
With daily cases hitting an all-time high, the special administrative region is failing to fulfil Beijing’s mandate to eliminate the virus, a condition of full reopening with the mainland market. Until now life inside the city was masked but otherwise normal thanks to tight restrictions on travel. Then the Omicron variant showed up.
It might not be enough. The timeline implies the outbreak will be curbed within a few months, allowing positive GDP growth of around 2.0%-3.5% for calendar year 2022. But as the real estate stimulus suggests, the administration is trying balance the interests of powerful business constituencies with acting tough for Beijing. In fact, the new social restrictions fall far short of China’s control model.
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