HONG KONG: As the Hong Kong government posts its first deficit in more than 15 years, all eyes will be on financial secretary Paul Chan’s budget release today and how he’ll tap cash reserves to stimulate an economy under pressure from months of unrest and the coronavirus outbreak.
Anti-government protests drove the city into recession last year and economists now forecast another slump for 2020, spelling the first back-to-back annual contractions on record. Yet Chan holds a major card that he has largely yet to play: A fiscal reserve that stood at HK$1.12 trillion (US$144bil) as of Dec 31.
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