Hong Kong's permanent residents to get $10,000 each

The government is looking to boost local consumption.

Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 and above will receive $10,000 each from the Hong Kong government, financial secretary Paul Chan said in his budget speech.

This would equate to an expenditure of about $71b, according to Chan, and is expected to benefit about seven million people.

The government hopes that the cash incentive will encourage and boost local consumption as well as relieve people's financial burden.

Public consumption has been hit negatively since June last year, when the protests began. The onset of the COVID-19 outbreak further dampened consumer sentiment. In a report, PwC said that it expects the city’s retail sales to contract 2.5% to $420b (US$54.01b) amidst uncertainty on consumer and business confidence.

For 2019 as a whole, the total value of retail sales fell 11.1% YoY in value and 12.3% YoY in volume compared with 2018. Meanwhile, restaurant receipts also declined 14.3% YoY in 2019 compared to the previous year.

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Further details of the scheme will be announced as soon as th