While Hong Kong's economy grew by 3.1% YoY in 1Q25, Paul Chan, Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, said in a media interview that he expected the city's 2Q25 performance to be fairly strong as well.

However, Chan emphasized that as a prudent measure, the government won't yet raise its full-year economic growth forecast of 2-3% in light of significant uncertainties such as geopolitical pressures that would continue to affect capital flows.

Seeing that there were market expectations of Hong Kong's IPO fundraising reclaiming the top spot globally in 1H25, Chan noted that it would be important for Hong Kong to fortify the positive momentum in listings and maintain close communication with relevant regulatory authorities in the Mainland, and he hoped to speed up the approval process and pace for Chinese companies to list in Hong Kong.