One in five Hong Kongers now live in poverty, report finds

The people of Hong Kong have gotten poorer in recent years, with more than a million people -- one in every five residents -- living below the poverty line since the start of this year, according to a new report from Oxfam.

The city's overall poverty rate topped 20% in the first quarter of 2024, with 1.39 million people living in poverty, an increase of 42.9% since the same period in 2019, according to the charity, which analyzed data from the city's Census and Statistics Department, while the number of poor households rose by 22.7% to 619,000, compared with the same period in 2019.

The figures come amid weak economic performance across the whole of China since the lifting of pandemic restrictions in 2022, and after the city authorities eliminated the political opposition as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Hong Kong's restaurants and retail outlets have also been hard-hit by the downturn, with bargain-hungry shoppers from Hong Kong flocking to Japan to stock up on affordable treats and household necessities, shoppers told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.

Hong Kong's poverty line in the first quarter of 2024 was a monthly income of HK$5,000 (US$644) for a single-person household, HK$11,300 (US$1,455 for a two-person household and HK$25,200 (US$3,245) for a household of four persons.

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has also widened, with the poorest 10% of households earning more than 80 times less than the richest 10%, the "Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024" found.

The median income for the poorest 10% fell by more than half since 2019, to just HK$1,600 a month, with the report citing a rise in the number of elderly people living in poverty.

"These numbers have sounded a warning to the rest of society," Oxfam's Hong Kong Director General Kalina Tsang told reporters on Wednesday. "We hope the Chief Executive will step up efforts in poverty alleviation, to help people below the poverty line."

The charity also called on the authorities to take steps to improve the lives of elderly people, amid a rapidly aging population, including subsidized job opportunities for older people.

Subsidized childcare and a living wage should also be priority measures to help lift households out of poverty, the report found.

‘Stewed beans’

An unemployed man who gave only the surname Kwan for fear of reprisals said he lost his job at the beginning of the year, and is now trying to eke out a living by getting odd jobs in maintenance and construction.

"I also think public transportation is expensive," Kwan said. "HK$500 (US$64) on your Octopus [smart card] used to be enough to get to work and back for a whole month, but these days, I have to top it up with another HK$500."

A visually impaired person who gave only the surname Leung for fear of reprisals said he has a job as a data entry clerk in an IT company, yet found it hard to make ends meet due to rising rent for his subdivided apartment, which was barely more than a cubby hole with a bed in it.

Leung was later allocated public housing, which now takes up 20% of his monthly salary, but now the cost of food -- even at restaurant chains famed for their affordability -- is also rising, he said.

"Nowadays, even a meal at Café de Coral costs HK$50 or HK$60 (US$7.70), and a meal at McDonalds costs more than HK$40 (US$5)," Leung said. "I barely spend anything now, and I cook everything myself, for just a few dollars a meal. I'm living on stewed beans."

Consumer prices in Hong Kong are on the rise, with the city government reporting a 2.5% increase in the Consumer Price Index for August, repeating a rise that had also been seen in July, prompting the government to announce a series of one-off relief measures, the Census and Statistics Department said on Sept. 24.

Prices of alcoholic drinks and tobacco rose by 20.8% year-on-year, while electricity, gas and water bills saw a 4.8% increase. The cost of housing rose by 3.3% year-on-year, while transportation, meals out and takeaway food all saw increases of more than 2%, it said.

"Prices of meals out and takeaway food increased at a moderate pace over a year earlier, and those of basic food inched up further," a government spokesman said.

Favoring the powerful

Exiled labor activist Christopher Mung said the figures were "staggering," and showed the failure of the Hong Kong government's anti-poverty policies, and blamed the situation on a lack of opposition voices in the city's political life amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent under Chinese Communist Party rule.

"The Hong Kong government is in a state of low tolerance [for dissent], so it will support the political and financial elite as part of the [Communist Party's] United Front," Mung said. "This means that any policies it introduces will inevitably favor the powerful."

"Both the Legislative and the Executive Councils are dominated by powerful people, opposition voices have been eliminated, and it's increasingly difficult for anyone to organize any kind of collective action to speak out for themselves," Mung said. 

"For anyone at the grassroots level, life is precarious, and anyone who does have a job is afraid they could lose it at any time," he said, adding that government figures also disguise the true number of jobless, by ignoring those who have simply given up looking for work.

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Mung, who agreed with the idea of a minimum wage, said the problem could fuel future social unrest if left unaddressed, describing it as "a ticking bomb" for social stability.

Hong Kong has lost its status as the world's freest economy due to ongoing curbs on its civil and political freedoms, Canada's Fraser Institute reported last year, adding that many container ships are bypassing the once-bustling port in favor of neighboring Shenzhen.

A report from RFA Cantonese in April revealed that major shipping companies are pulling out of Hong Kong as it loses its status as a free, international container port, with experts blaming the recent political crackdown and structural changes.

Total container volumes coming through Hong Kong fell to 14.3 million TEUs in 2023, the lowest volume since 1998, a year after the handover to China.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.