According to China Daily: “The financial tsunami has triggered panic around the world, with its impact taking a heavy toll on a variety of industries in Hong Kong. Turmoil in the global credit markets has severely weighted down earnings of the banking and finance industry, which triggered a wave of job cuts among local banks.”
- Starting from September, Europe’s largest bank HSBC laid off 4 percent of its worldwide back-office staff, including 100 employees in Hong Kong
- In November, HSBC axed 450 jobs in Hong Kong in its second round of layoff.
- In early November, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank DBS trimmed its workforce by 6 percent, or 900 jobs, in its Hong Kong and Singapore operations
- Standard Chartered Bank, a UK-based lender focused on emerging markets in Asia,shed 200 jobs – 4 percent of its staff – in Hong Kong in early December.
- Banks in Hong Kong may further reduce their staff numbers in the first half of 2009
- In early October, Hong Kong toy maker Smart Union Group closed down its two factories in Dongguan, throwing almost 7,000 workers into unemployment.
- Around 5,000 factories in the region had already closed down amid the financial meltdown.
- The Christmas sales in the US tumbled around 20 to 30 percent this year, which means the export market for the mainland has significantly shrunk
- Hong Kong-funded factories in the PRD may close down in 2009
- The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September has also severely affected more than 40,000 holders of Lehman’s minibonds in Hong Kong
Stepping into 2009, economists expect it may take quite a while for the territory’s economy to bounce back, according to China Daily
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