Hong Kong's misery is mainly driven by high inflation, which is related to its close economic links with mainland China and its currency's peg to the US dollar. Photo: AFP
Hong Kong tops Asian Tigers’ misery index
Hong Kong tops the “misery index” for Asia’s four tiger economies, according to the Taiwan-based Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.
The city was 6.95 percent on the index, which measures the average unemployment and inflation rates in the four cities over the past decade, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported Thursday. It was followed by South Korea at 6.35 percent, Taiwan at 5.85 percent and Singapore at 5.2 percent,
Hong Kong’s “misery” was mainly driven by high inflation, while Korea suffered from an export-oriented economy that has resulted in wide income disparity and a negative growth during the global financial crisis and economic downturn.
The city’s economy has been on a relatively fast-growth track over the past few years. Yet the truly miserable days may lie ahead as a result of the fading impact of the individual traveler scheme for mainland tourists, coupled with rising inflation imported from the mainland and a weak US dollar, to which Hong Kong’s currency is linked, the report said.
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