Li: HK鈥檚 economy 鈥榳orst in 20 years鈥
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HONG Kong’s economy is at its worst in 20 years, billionaire Li Ka-shing said yesterday, warning that the city’s stock market could fall by more than half if the financial hub does not get backing from China’s mainland.
Li, who held court and joked with reporters for more than an hour during an earnings news conference, is the latest person to sound the alarm after Moody’s downgraded Hong Kong’s sovereign credit rating at the weekend, citing its links to the mainland’s economic slowdown.
“Today’s Hong Kong is getting worse ... the worst I’ve seen in 20 years,” said Li, 88, referring to the Asia financial crisis in the late 1990s.
“Our home sales and retail now is worse than the SARS period. During SARS (the effect) was short-lived but now it is long,” he said, in a reference to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that crippled the city in 2003.
Hong Kong’s retail sales, which suffered their worst decline in 13 years in 2015, have been hit by a slump in tourists from the Chinese mainland.
“If we respect tourists, no matter where they’re from, today our retail, hotels would not be this bad. So everyone has to reflect on themselves, there are a lot of issues the politicians need to reflect on how they can do better,” Li said.
Earlier yesterday, Li’s ports-to-telecoms conglomerate CK Hutchison reported a net profit of HK$31.17 billion (US$4 billion) for 2015, in its first full-year earnings report after a re-organization last year.
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