hong kongs economy is expected to grow 235 in real terms this year the citys financial secretary said as the asian financial hub faces its largest covid19 outbreak since the pandemic began the government plans to spend more than 170 billion hong kong dollars us2179 billion on countercyclical measures to support its economy financial secretary paul chan said wednesday at this critical time we need to direct more resources to relieve peoples hardship and provide smes with some breathing space so as to stabilise the economy and maintain public confidence he said at his budget speech for the coming fiscal year beginning april the rapidly worsening pandemic outbreak in hong kong has battered consumer sentiment and put intense pressure on economic activities in the short term he said he added that he is not optimistic about hong kongs economic performance in the first quarter among the relief measures the government will hand out hk10000 in electronic consumption vouchers to every hong kong permanent resident aged 18 or above in a bid to boost spending the budget has allocated over hk54 billion to fund pandemiccontrol efforts mr chan said during the 20232026 period taking into account catchup growth after the pandemic hong kongs economy is projected to grow by an average of 3 per annum in real terms compared with the trend growth of 28 during the decade before the pandemic he said