Hong Kong's financial system remains stable amid challenges: financial chief

HONG KONG -- Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Paul Chan said on Sunday that although the COVID-19 outbreak has brought a lot of challenges to the society and the global market fluctuated over the past nine months, the operation of Hong Kong's financial system remains stable and orderly.

Chan said in his blog that the stability of the financial system concerns the economy and the people's livelihood. Financial services is one of the pillar industries in Hong Kong, contributing about 20 percent of Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product.

The development of the financial market can stimulate Hong Kong's economic activities. It would be ideal if the public could have more room to participate and benefit from it, he said.

Under this consideration, Chan decided to relaunch the inflation-linked retail bond (iBond) in his budget released at the beginning of the year.

The half-yearly interest payments of iBond are linked to the average year-on-year inflation measured by the Composite Consumer Price Index.

The iBond has been popular among Hong Kong people, Chan said, more than 150,000 people subscribed to iBond when it was first launched in 2011, the number of subscribers surpassed 500,000 in 2016. The cumulative amount of issues has reached HK$60 billion (about US$7.74 billion) within six years.

Chan said that iBond provides the public with an investment option that can earn stable returns and keep the capital, and can help to promote the further development of Hong Kong's bond market.