Hongkongers deserve credit for getting through a tough 2024

In his New Year’s message, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu wrapped up 2024 with a good deal of self-congratulatory pats on the back for his team. He rang in the new year with a very positive outlook, announcing that “Hong Kong has recovered from the pandemic and successfully restored its economic vitality.”

Evidently the Hang Seng Index disagrees. The index fell 2.2 per cent on the first trading day of 2025, closing below 20,000 points. Remember that it closed at more than 28,000 on the last day of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world.

We can all do maths, so no, we have not recovered from the pandemic yet. Look around the city’s streets and see the empty shops; it is clear we have not recovered our previous economic vitality. This is most apparent in our retail sector, where provisional estimates released last week showed November retail sales fell by 7.3 per cent year on year, dropping for a ninth consecutive month.

Hong Kong box office revenue fell to a 13-year low of HK$1.34 billion (US$172.2 million) last year, a 6.2 per cent drop compared to 2023. Home prices have fallen 6.55 per cent even after the removal of government cooling measures earlier this year.