Business confidence and market expectations in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) have strengthened significantly, according to indices published by Standard Chartered and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
The GBA business confidence index rose by 11.8 points to 51.3 – the first time it has exceeded the 50 mark since the last quarter of 2021.
The expectations index jumped by 16.4 points to 61.5 in the biggest rise since the index was first compiled in the second quarter of 2020. Financial services and technology sectors were the most bullish.
Of the GBA municipalities, the most optimistic were Dongguan (69.6, up 32.5 points), Guangzhou (67.7, up 24.6 points) and Shenzhen (60.8, up 13.7 points).
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“With the support of government policies and boundary reopening, we see little reason to doubt the sustainability of the post-Covid recovery for now”, said Kelvin Lau, a senior economist at Standard Chartered.
About 60 percent of companies polled for the indices expected business to match or exceed pre-Covid levels in the fourth quarter of this year, researchers said.
The indices are based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies in the GBA covering such sectors as manufacturing, trading, retail and wholesale, financial services, and technology.
