Today (May 3) is the third day of the Mainland's five-day Labor Day "Golden Week" holiday. Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that during the holiday, Hong Kong has been bustling with people and that business sentiment and the overall atmosphere for trading has been active and positive. In the past two days, more than 602,000 visitors came to Hong Kong via various land border control points, representing a year-on-year increase of 6%. Many shops and restaurants expect the Golden Week to bring solid business performance.
He also said that visitor numbers to Hong Kong in the first quarter of this year grew faster year-on-year, reaching 17%, with over 14.3 million visitor trips. This is another quarterly high since the pandemic. He expects the total number of visitors for the full year could exceed the original forecast of 53.8 million. This, in turn, is expected to lift total spending related to inbound and tourism for the full year to over HK$240 billion, which would be up 9.5% compared with last year.
In a blog post today, Chan said that over the past year, local consumption markets have shown a clear trend of recovery. Based on data from major electronic payment platforms, Hong Kong residents' daily spending has increased year-on-year for six consecutive quarters. In the first quarter this year, consumption related to retail and dining increased by 5.2%year-on-year, and spending at non–fast-food restaurants rose by nearly 8%.
On exports, Chan said that performance in the first quarter remained strong, rising by 32% in terms of export value—representing 25 consecutive months of growth and the best quarterly performance in five years. If looking only at March, the increase was even higher, at close to 36%. In addition, with private consumption continuing to improve, and export and fixed investment performance remaining favorable, the preliminary estimate of first-quarter GDP to be released this week is expected to further accelerate from the 4%growth in the revised fourth-quarter figure compared with a year earlier—becoming the strongest quarterly GDP growth in nearly five years.
Chan said the government is closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East and the rise in international oil prices, and their impacts on the industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the overall economy. He noted that, given that operating costs for some fuel-intensive industries such as transportation have increased, the government has announced a series of short-term and targeted measures totaling about HK$2 billion. These include diesel subsidies, halving government tunnel tolls for non-private vehicles, and subsidies for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fuel, among others.
He added that to help local SMEs cope with today's rapidly changing market environment, the government has also asked the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the banking sector to work together to launch a new round of support measures. These include increasing earmarked special funds for SMEs, providing credit support for affected industries, and rolling out flexible loan repayment arrangements.
Paul Chan emphasized that in the face of a complex and ever-changing external environment, Hong Kong's economy is looking to move toward "improving quality while expanding volume," and to move forward. Throughout this process, there must be both "stability" and "progress." In particular, it is crucial to accelerate and deepen the application of artificial intelligence technologies across different sectors and to strengthen talent training—so that digital and intelligent transformation can be embedded to a greater extent in different industries and in corporate operations. By relying on Hong Kong's stable development and resilience to withstand global uncertainties and shocks, the economy can speed up toward higher-quality growth.
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Mainland visitor arrivals in HK exceed 242,000 on first day of Labor Day 'Golden Week'
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