Transcript of remarks by FS at media session after ninth meeting of Financial Leaders Forum (with video)

     The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, met the media after attending the ninth meeting of the Financial Leaders Forum this afternoon (August 7). Joining him were the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr James Lau; the Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr Arthur Yuen; and the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission, Ms Julia Leung. Following is the transcript of remarks at the media session:
 
Reporter: You said the latest economic data shows that the Hong Kong economy is under pressure, so do you see partly because of the, well uh, the economy's and how likely you see a greater chance that we are heading into a recession in the second half of the year?
 
Financial Secretary: Thank you for the question. Our second quarter economic data indicates that, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, the GDP has decelerated in the second quarter, and in fact has come down to negative 0.3 per cent. The economic situation, both externally and domestically was challenging in July. Domestically we are still struggling with our own social issues and externally there are increasing external uncertainties caused by escalating US-China trade conflict as well as other geo-political situations.
 
For the third quarter of this year, if we were to have a negative growth again, then we would be technically in recession. This situation is causing some concern, and we'd like to highlight this risk to our people so that we will all stay vigilant and pay more attention to our economic and livelihood issues. Thank you.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)