{"id":528143,"date":"2026-04-13T07:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528143\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:54:20","slug":"from-toilet-paper-to-travel-why-inflation-could-soon-hit-hongkongers-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528143\/","title":{"rendered":"From toilet paper to travel: why inflation could soon hit Hongkongers hard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With various <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/hong-kong-economy\/article\/3349564\/oil-crisis-just-start-economic-pain-hongkongers?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hong Kong industries battered<\/a> by the world\u2019s highest petrol and diesel prices, economists and business leaders predict the oil crisis caused by the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/us-israel-war-iran?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Middle East war<\/a> will trigger a wave of imported inflation, driving up the cost of items ranging from toilet paper and laundry services to asphalt.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Analysts have warned that the adverse impact on inflation will be more immediate than the effect on economic growth, with some saying the repercussions will emerge in the third and fourth quarters.<\/p>\n<p>The spectre of soaring inflation could even haunt the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/northern-metropolis?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Northern Metropolis<\/a> megaproject while pushing more Hongkongers to spend across the border in mainland China, they said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Adrienne Lui, economist for Greater China and Mongolia and director of Asia-Pacific Economics Research at Citigroup Global Markets Asia, maintained her 2026 real gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for Hong Kong at 3.2 per cent, noting that the energy disruption was \u201clikely to be inflationary rather than too damaging\u201d to growth.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Lui\u2019s team has raised its average consumer price index (CPI) forecast for 2026 by 0.3 percentage points to 1.9 per cent year on year to reflect about three months of elevated energy costs.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Electricity accounted for 2.8 per cent of the CPI basket in Hong Kong, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With various Hong Kong industries battered by the world\u2019s highest petrol and diesel prices, economists and business leaders&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[183082,14473,84,183086,1294,6875,585,183084,632,50,74866,183085,23727,8711,183083,56,54,55,9790,181176],"class_list":{"0":"post-528143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-adrienne-lui","9":"tag-asphalt","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-citigroup-global-markets-asia","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-hong-kong","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-joseph-chan","16":"tag-middle-east","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-northern-metropolis","19":"tag-ray-wong-wing-wai","20":"tag-scmp","21":"tag-shenzhen","22":"tag-shiu-ka-fai","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-unitedkingdom","26":"tag-university-of-hong-kong","27":"tag-us-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}