Hong Kong’s economy has slipped into its second recession in three years as tough Covid-19 restrictions battered the Chinese territory’s reputation as an international financial centre.
Official data released on Monday showed that the city’s gross domestic product contracted 1.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, after a 3.9 per cent decline in the first three months. The fall exceeded a forecast decline of 0.2 per cent, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Hong Kong has followed a version of Beijing’s “zero-Covid” strategy of eradicating the virus, and the city is one of the last in the world still clinging to enforced hotel quarantine for incoming travellers.