Hong Kong's economy has witnessed encouraging improvements recently, in line with the Financial Secretary Henry Tang's earlier remarks that Hong Kong has put the worst of its economic downturn behind it.
Market watchers noted that the latest market indicators and consumers' confidence polls all point to an economic recovery, which is particularly noticeable in inbound tourism and related sectors such as airlines, retail, catering and business services.
Businesses with retailers, cinemas and restaurants all have witnessed some degrees of improvement to return to the same level as the same period last year.
The strong pick-up in tourism and related sectors aided employment, which in return, boosted market performance.
The latest government statistics show that the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in Hong Kong declined from 8.7 per cent in the May-July period to 8.6 per cent in June-August 2003, the first decline in nine months.
