Occupy protests have hit credit-card spending, warns Financial Secretary John Tsang
Financial secretary says retail and catering industries in occupied areas are suffering
Credit-card spending has plunged as major shopping areas are hit by Occupy protests, the financial secretary says.
John Tsang Chun-wah did not provide statistics, but said the government had started to collect data to assess the impact of Occupy on the economy.
"Preliminary data shows that retail and catering industries in relevant districts have been hard hit," Tsang wrote on his blog yesterday. "Overall credit-card spending has dropped considerably."
The impact would soon be reflected in short- and medium-term economic data, Tsang said. While the financial market remained stable, Tsang said that some foreign investors were delaying decisions before making investments in Hong Kong.
He urged protesters to leave the streets as soon as possible, saying they had already made their voices heard.
"The clashes in Mong Kok … can only make one believe that some people want to destroy public order just for the sake of it. They are messing around in the Occupy movement," he said.
A similar point was made by Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, who said that shops and restaurants in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay had complained to him that they have had no customers at night.
"If the situation continues, we are worried because employers might lay off casual staff," Cheung said. "They won't hire temporary workers and may also ask employees to take outstanding leave."
He also said the Occupy protests had affected elderly and disabled people who needed to travel for regular medical appointments.
Terence Chong Tai-leung, an economics professor at Chinese University, agreed that Occupy had affected retail businesses because the protest sites were in areas frequented by tourists.
But Chong said Occupy was unlikely to affect the financial market, as it was not dependent on a physical area.
The upcoming Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme would even boost transactions, Chong said.
According to the Immigration Department, 1.09 million mainland tourists visited Hong Kong during the week-long holiday from National Day on October 1. This was 6.8 per cent higher than the same period last year.
But the number of registered package tours from the mainland had dropped by 20 to 30 per cent since August, according to the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.
