Morgan Stanley sees HK's growth at 0.5% this year

Morgan Stanley said Hong Kong’s economy will recover slowly this quarter and could reach 0.5% growth this year. The investment bank said Hong Kong's economy is expected to grow by 4.5% next year if it reaches a quarantine-free reopening with the mainland. It added that private consumption is expected to recover from a 5.4% year-on-year decline in Q1 to grow by 1% in Q2 and 0.6% in H1 of the year. However, the pace of economic recovery is likely to remain slow as the mainland is unlikely to change the zero-Covid policy before the middle of Q4 and the Covid measures in the next two quarters may disrupt the supply chain and affect Hong Kong's trade.