Category Archives: Blog

The government issues data on ‘restaurant receipts and purchases for the fourth quarter of 2024 and whole year of 2024’. Stats geek Joel Chan provides the summary above. In real terms, restaurants saw a 2.4% drop in revenues in 2024. … Continue reading →

HKFP lists retailers who have recently downsized or pulled out of Hong Kong. The article blames the 2019 protests and Covid, which spurred middle-class emigration and changed consumer habits – including a trend of leisure spending in far more affordable … Continue reading →

Former Transport and Housing Minister Anthony Cheung calls for a civil service pay freeze to help solve the government’s budget deficit. He notes that fiscal reserves of HK$1.1 trillion in 2018 are now at HK$570 billion. Much of that went … Continue reading →

Easing into Snake Year gradually. Yesterday’s Standard reports Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s suggestions for tackling the government’s budget deficit… Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has put forward potential areas for cost-cutting within education and health care and says adjustments will … Continue reading →

The year ends with a strong smell of NatSec. A Twitter post… Hong Kong pro-democracy politician / activist Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) — who’s being jailed for organizing protests/ rallies in 2019 — was seen restrained in chains like a felon … Continue reading →

Getting Covid shot number 8, and hoping that Snake Year will bring good health to all…

We need something relaxing and wholesome. Just a quick link to a Zolina City Mag guide to all the places in Tai O where you can see whale bones. That village is just packed with them. If you insist on … Continue reading →

Hong Kong officials respond to former US VP Mike Pence’s comments about Jimmy Lai at a business summit in the city… A government spokesperson said Pence’s comments were intended “to influence the fairness of the trial with malicious intent”. This … Continue reading →

Government inspectors testing foodstuffs imported from Japan find no evidence of dangerous levels of radiation – for the 18th month running. They have processed over 111,000 samples, the majority seafood, since August 2023, and found that every single one was … Continue reading →

From HKFP – Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung uses the ceremonial opening of the legal year to state that courts are not designed to serve political ends… The chief justice said on Monday that national security cases, despite attracting attention … Continue reading →