Hong Kong's economy shrank 4.5 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, the third consecutive quarter of contraction, with the decline widening from the 1.3 percent recorded in the April-to-June period. It also marked the worst contraction since the second quarter of 2020. A senior economist at Natixis, Gary Ng, said the latest GDP figure was worse than he had expected, and he is now predicting a contraction of close to 3 percent for the whole of this year. He told Joanne Wong that the local economy faced two major risks at the moment:

An economics professor is urging the government to do away with quarantine for arrivals and get rid of the special stamp duty - which he says is undermining Hong Kong's property market. Professor Ho Lok-sang, the Director of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute at Lingnan University, said Hong Kong’s performance in the third quarter was worse than he had expected. He attributed this to weak external and domestic demand, with the consumption vouchers not boosting sales in the way the government had hoped for. Professor Ho spoke to Samantha Butler:

The Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, is expected to arrive back in Hong Kong from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, just ahead of the opening of the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit. This was announced by the government after Chan tested negative for Covid in a rapid antigen test in Riyadh. On Monday in a video message to the opening of Hong Kong FinTech Week, Chan said it was a top priority to digitalise the SAR's financial system. Maggie Ho reports:

Key figures from the international financial industry have arrived in Hong Kong ahead of the opening of the SAR’s Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit on Wednesday. The prestigious event's organiser, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, says the presence of bosses from companies, such as Goldman Sachs, UBS and JP Morgan, is a firm indication that the territory is reopening to the world. Vicky Wong reports:

The government says it is preparing for a new licensing regime for virtual asset service providers and will look into letting retail investors trade in cryptocurrencies. This was revealed in a policy statement from the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau, as Joanne Wong reports:

A survey of people with chronic illnesses has found that around two-thirds of those who caught Covid felt their general health worsened despite recovering from the virus. The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation said between June and July it carried out online interviews with 119 chronic patients who had previously been infected with Covid. Before catching the virus, around half of the respondents suffered from health issues in addition to their illnesses. About 66 percent reported having such issues after becoming infected with the coronavirus. Given this, the society's Dr Karen Hui told Vanessa Cheng that government rehabilitation services should prioritise chronic patients:

Mainland residents will be able to visit Macau from Tuesday using an online visa system. The move could increase travel to the world's largest gambling hub after two years of pandemic restrictions. But it comes just after one of the city's biggest casinos was locked down over a Covid-19 case. Altis Wong reports:

China has successfully launched the third module of its Tiangong space station, moving its construction into the final stage. As Wendy Wong reports, the final part of the station is designed to support space scientific research: