{"id":502523,"date":"2026-02-25T06:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T06:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502523\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T06:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T06:04:08","slug":"budget-2026-27-hong-kong-operating-surplus-of-hk51-3-billion-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502523\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2026-27: Hong Kong operating surplus of HK$51.3 billion forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP\u2019s journalism by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.scmp.com\/?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article&amp;campaign=rosetta_free_article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\">subscribing<\/a>.Hong Kong finance chief <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/paul-chan?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paul Chan Mo-po<\/a> unveiled his latest <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/hong-kong-budget-2026-27?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">budget<\/a> on Wednesday, revealing an earlier-than-expected operating surplus after three years of deficits.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While the improved fiscal position \u2013 driven by a stock market boom \u2013 had sparked calls for more sweeteners in this year\u2019s financial blueprint, Chan had sought to manage public expectations by repeatedly stressing the need to maintain adequate reserves to safeguard against geopolitical shocks and support long-term growth.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The financial secretary announced new measures to strengthen the city\u2019s global financial standing, innovation and technology development. The city will also boost its growing intellectual property (IP) economy and aerospace development, inject substantial funds into a new innovation hub near the border, and consolidate Hong Kong\u2019s strategic roles outlined in the nation\u2019s 15th five-year plan.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Follow our live updates on the budget to see how it will affect you.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1o401188 css-1w1l3op e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771999448_721_maxresdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-qa=\"SCMPYoutubeVideoPreview-PreviewTitle\" class=\"css-zasw6y e1o401182\">FULL EVENT: Hong Kong budget address 2026<\/p>\n<p>FULL EVENT: Hong Kong budget address 2026<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">More from our coverage:<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Reporting by Jeffie Lam, Denise Tsang, Edith Lin, Jess Ma, Lo Hoi-ying, Oscar Liu, Connor Mycroft, Natalie Wong and Matthew Cheng.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[252636,64,63,1480,99,252632,252639,164,252638,10340,17610,252633,252641,252637,252635,252634,252640,230222,41313],"class_list":{"0":"post-502523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aerospace-development","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-budget","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-connor-mycroft","14":"tag-denise-tsang","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-edith-lin","17":"tag-hong-kong","18":"tag-intellectual-property","19":"tag-jeffie-lam","20":"tag-jess-ma","21":"tag-lo-hoi-ying","22":"tag-matthew-cheng","23":"tag-natalie-wong","24":"tag-oscar-liu","25":"tag-paul-chan-mo-po","26":"tag-wednesday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}