Hong Kong tops World Economic Forum’s Financial Development Index

December 13th, 2011

Hong Kong tops the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Financial Development Index for the first time, up from fourth in 2010. According to the WEF Financial Development Index released today (December 13), Hong Kong has overtaken the United States and United Kingdom to take the top spot with a score of 5.16 (scale of 1-7).

The Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang said, “We welcome the WEF’s recognition of Hong Kong’s rising competitiveness as an international financial centre. Hong Kong is ranked first in financial development. This is the first time ever for an Asian financial centre to be given the top spot.

“We are pleased with the WEF’s encouraging acknowledgement of our strengths in financial access, business environment and banking financial services, and in particular, our strong performance in some financial services such as IPO activity and insurance.

“We will study the report carefully for any further useful comments on Hong Kong. We will continue to strengthen Hong Kong on various aspects as a leading financial centre and as Mainland’s offshore Renminbi centre,” he said.

Among the seven component pillars assessed, Hong Kong ranks first in “Financial access”, and third in both “Business environment” and “Banking financial services”. The WEF noted that the need to make different forms of capital available will be essential for future growth and recovery. The WEF also remarked that the challenge facing various economies in the world will be how to encourage economic activity while not fuelling the next credit bubble, which could cause severe consequences down the line. According to the WEF, when looking for possible solutions, decision-makers should not lose sight of the long-term consequences while they fix the short-term situation.

The study ranks 60 of the world’s leading financial systems and capital markets, analysing the drivers of financial system development that support economic growth. The seven pillars assessed are: institutional environment, business environment, financial stability, banking financial services, non-banking financial services, financial markets and financial access.

Hong Kong ranks first, overtaking the US (2nd), the UK (3rd) and Singapore (4th). Mainland China ranks 19th, up from 22nd.

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Chinese version on next page.

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