Hong Kong’s finance and insurance sector ‘significantly optimistic’ on business outlook

The ‘Quarterly Business Tendency Survey’ (25-page / 2.28 MB PDF), published by Hong Kong’s census and statistics department (C&SD), said 30% of finance and insurance respondents expected business prospects to improve in Q3, with 66% expecting prospects to remain unchanged and only 4% expecting prospects to worsen.

Senior managers in some 560 prominent companies in Hong Kong took part in the survey to provide a snapshot of opinions about the short-term future economic performance of the local economy.

The survey, conducted between 4 June and 10 July, covered 10 major sectors including manufacturing, construction, import/export trade and wholesale, retail and professional and business services.

For all surveyed sectors taken together, 17% of respondents expected their business prospects to improve in Q3, with 11% expecting prospects to worsen, the C&SD said.

The C&SD said there was a slight increase in respondents overall who expected their business prospects to remain unchanged in Q3 (72%) compared to 69% in the second quarter.

The survey found the accommodation and food services, information and communications, construction, and real estate sectors were “optimistic” about Q3 business prospects, with “slightly more respondents” expecting to see increases in employment.

The survey also indicated that “significantly more respondents” in the construction sector are expecting to see increases in their tender prices in Q3.

Respondents in all of the surveyed sectors expect an increase in volume of business/output in Q3 compared to the previous quarter on balance, the C&SD said. “In particular, significantly more respondents in the construction and information and communication sectors expect their volume of business/output to increase, as compared to those expecting it to decrease.”