In this study, quantitative, industry-level measures of the intensity of competition are measured. Various methodologies and data used for measuring competition are also discussed. The level of intensity is also compared. The following statistical data are also presented in detail: gross fixed capital formation, selected price indicators, labor force, employment and unemployment, wages, labor productivity, and unit labor costs, property market developments, monetary indicators, equity price developments, revenue, exchange fund balance sheet, loans and advances by type, GDP by sector at current prices, and so on.

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the long-term fiscal policy in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the anticipated structural changes in the economy. The paper examines the factors that contributed to the stability of the banking system in Hong Kong SAR by assessing the roles played by banks, equity markets, and debt markets. The study describes a procedure to extract the probability distribution of future exchange rate movements based on currency option data. The paper also provides a statistical appendix report of the country.

This Occasional Paper provides an overview of the main challenges facing Hong Kong SAR as it continues to become more closely integrated with the mainland of China. Section I provides an overview of recent macroeconomic developments and the main policy issues in Hong Kong SAR. Section II examines various aspects of the ongoing integration with the mainland, and the associated implications for the structure of the economy, and for macroeconomic and structural policies. Section III examines the medium-term fiscal outlook under different policy scenarios and discusses alternative policy options to restore fiscal balance. Section IV reviews recent developments in the real estate sector and their macroeconomic impacts. Section V presents an econome tric analysis of deflation and its determinants. Section VI examines the factors behind, and the implications of, rising wage inequality in Hong Kong SAR. Section VII presents an overview of recent developments in the financial sector and provides an assessment of Hong Kong SAR’s prospects as an international financial center.

The 2007-2009 global financial crisis was predictable and avoidable, but American and British regulators chose not to intervene. They failed to implement their own policies because of an Anglo-American "regulatory culture" of non-intervention that dominated financial regulation worldwide. Hong Kong--the international financial center of an increasingly prosperous China--defied world opinion and made stability its priority. This policy ensured Hong Kong's robust performance during the last 15 years, and it made possible Hong Kong's impressive contributions to financing China's economic take-off and to the modernization of its financial institutions.Reluctant Regulatorsis a scathing indictment of regulatory inertia in the West. It provides original insights into the causes of financial crises and pays special attention to China's attempts at reform and Hong Kong's place in China's financial modernization. Leo F. Goodstadtwas chief policy adviser to the Hong Kong Government as head of its Central Policy Unit (1989-1997) and has had an extensive consultancy practice in Asian banking. He has written widely on the global financial crisis and on China's economic development.