Other measures announced in the budget included profits and salary tax breaks as well as low interest loans for businesses struggling to pay staff wages.
Hong Kong’s government on Wednesday said it will give a HK$10,000 handout to seven million permanent residents in a bid to jump-start a recession-hit economy now compounded by the coronavirus outbreak.
The cash handout alone will cost HK$71 billion but officials hope consumers will plough much of the money back into local businesses. Hong Kong’s economy is reeling from the US-China trade war, months of pro-democracy protests last year and now the coronavirus: a triple whammy Chan described as “exceptionally austere”.
The recession is a major headache for the city’s unelected pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam who currently boasts record low approval ratings after facing down huge democracy protests.
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