Hong Kong Economy Shrinks 8.9% In First Quarter

The Hong Kong economy has had the steepest plunge for a single quarter on record, contracting 8.9 percent year-on-year in the first three months of this year.

The advance estimate released by the government is the biggest fall on record.

The economy slowed further from a minus 3 percent GDP reading in the final three months of last year.

A government spokesman said the economic recession deepened in the first quarter of this year, as the threat of Covid-19 seriously disrupted a wide range of local economic activities and supply chains in the region.

It said with the disease evolving into a pandemic in March, the economic fallout became even more severe.

The first quarter figure beats both an 8.3 percent contraction during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and a 7.8 drop in early 2009 following the global crash.

"This was the largest decline on record since the reference period of the first quarter of 1974," the government said, referencing the year it began tracking comparable data.

The fall is also the third straight quarter Hong Kong's economy has declined, making it the deepest recession stretch since 2009. (Additional reporting by AFP)