Nearly 60% of the public are not optimistic about this year’s economy

The DAB released the latest “Consumer Confidence Index” survey yesterday and found that the “Comprehensive Consumer Emotion Index”, “Consumer Expectation Index” and “Current Status Index” both fell; A further 59% of the respondents have a negative view of Hong Kong’s economic prospects in the coming year. Zhou Haoding, a member of the Legislative Council of the DAB, analyzed that the Sino-US trade war has continued to heat up, and the adjustment of the stock market and the property market, coupled with the slowdown in economic growth, have turned the public’s confidence in the overall economy to be conservative. The DAB has a series of recommendations, including re-launching special credit guarantee schemes for SMEs and reducing salaries.

The three major consumer indices fell

Zhou Haoding, a member of the Legislative Council of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), and Lu Chunlu, deputy spokesperson for the economic development of the party, held a press conference yesterday to present the party’s newly completed “Consumer Confidence Index” survey. The survey was conducted from December 19 last year to the 2nd of this month. A random sample of the telephone was used to successfully interview 979 citizens.

The survey included three indices, all of which fell compared to the previous survey conducted around June last year. Among them, the “Consumer Consumer Emotion Index” fell from 7 to 72.4 last time; the “Consumer Expectation Index” fell to 73 from the previous 80.7; the “Current Situation Index” fell from 76.5 to 71.5.

For the economic outlook of Hong Kong in the coming year, the number of respondents with positive views has decreased from about 21% to 15% last year; the number of respondents with negative views has increased significantly from the last 41% to 59%. . As for the economic outlook for the next five years, respondents with positive views maintained at around 18%, and respondents with negative views rose from 34% to 39%.

Promotion of salary reduction

Zhou Haoding said that the results reflect that the friction between China and the US trade war continues to heat up, the stock market and the property market have adjusted, and the slowdown in economic growth has turned the public’s confidence in personal finance and the overall economy to be conservative. The DAB also believes that given the external factors such as Sino-US trade negotiations, the market has become more complicated, and there are more market variables in the future, and the risk of economic downturn remains high. The DAB thinks that the SAR Government should take measures to prevent major risks in the market and further develop the economy while appropriately introducing relief measures.

The DAB has a series of recommendations, including re-launching special credit guarantee schemes for SMEs, or optimizing relevant measures to introduce loan guarantee schemes with lower premiums, higher insurance coverage and longer insurance periods; lower salaries, such as exempting children The amount will be raised from $120,000 to $132,000; the “Double Food” for the Old Age Allowance, the Living Allowance and the Disability Allowance will be issued; the “Social Housing Fund” will be set up to speed up the supply of the Transitional Housing Scheme; “Seventy-three ratios”; strengthen support for patients with uncommon diseases and cancer, and include relevant expensive drugs in the Drug List.