HONG KONG: Business activity in Hong Kong contracted at the fastest pace in 21 years in November, dragged down by anti-government protests and softening global demand, an IHS Markit survey showed yesterday.
A survey reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a figure below 50 denotes contraction on a monthly basis. Demand from mainland China shrank for a nineteenth straight month in November, although the pace of contraction eased from October. Protesters are angry by what they see as Beijing’s tightening grip over the city’s cherished freedoms promised under a “one country, two systems” formula when Britain returned it to Chinese rule in 1997.