Is Singapore at the start of a boom cycle that will see costs out pace Hong Kong for years? — Singapore looks like an attractive location for firms wanting to exit Hong Kong, but they may find a move to the city-state hits their bottom line more than expected.
Accelerating prices haven’t stopped the rate of new business formation in the Southeast Asian city-state from reaching a 17-month high in August. In Hong Kong, the number of new local businesses has held roughly steady with 2021’s pace but is down from a peak in 2017.
Numbers aren’t available yet for this year, but pay increases for civil servants, which can have a knock-on effect to the private sector, have shown some notable differences. Singapore’s civil servants are expecting a pay raise ranging from 5% to 14% this year, while Hong Kong proposed a 2.5% boost.Hong Kong regulates its two electricity providers, but it isn’t immune to the energy price increases that swept the globe following the war in Ukraine.