Leung Chun-ying has highlighted Hong Kong's poverty challenges, but offered no new policy initiatives or targets. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
C.Y. 'not afraid to take tough decisions' after government recognises poverty levels for the first time, but no new initiatives announced
Hong Kong - one of the wealthiest places in the world - has acknowledged for the first time that it has a sizeable poverty problem by declaring that 1.31 million of its citizens are officially poor.
The number of people who fall below the new government-set poverty line falls to 1.01 million after welfare payments such as Comprehensive Social Security Assistance are factored in.
Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of the year was revised higher on Monday, leading some analysts to suggest the economy's gloomy times could soon be over.
On an annualized basis, GDP rose 15.5 percent on the previous quarter, faster than an advanced estimate made a month ago of 15.2 percent, and above analyst expectations of 14 percent. The positive data comes after the Singaporean government hiked its growth outlook for 2013 to between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent last week, from between 1 and 3 percent.
Now a number of analysts are turning more bullish on the economy and forecasting that the worst could be over.