In December 2024, the S&P Global Hong Kong PMI fell to 51.1. The slowdown trend may continue at the beginning of 2025.

Standard & Poor's Global announced that after seasonal adjustment, the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for Hong Kong in December 2024 fell slightly from 51.2% in November to 51.1%. Although it reflects a continuous improvement in the business environment for the third month in a row, the improvement was the most moderate during the period, and the momentum of output growth further weakened. Looking at the data for December, sub-indices such as output, new orders, employment, and purchasing inventory were all lower than the previous month, leading to a monthly decline in the PMI value. According to Standard & Poor's Global, in December 2024, the volume of new orders from overseas and mainland China decreased at the same time, resulting in a slowdown in overall order growth, leading to a further decline in the expansion rate of business activities. On the other hand, companies remained pessimistic about business prospects, leading to a reduction in staff size, but still actively purchasing and increasing inventory levels. In addition, businesses appeared cautious in pricing, as they continued to lower output prices even as costs continued to rise, with the decline being the largest since March 2021. The volume of new business received by companies from overseas and mainland China continued to decrease moderately in December, leading to a 3-month low in overall order growth. External demand remained weak. However, the purchasing willingness of local customers increased, and the consumer base expanded, providing strong support for new orders and benefiting companies with a continuous 3-month expansion of operations, albeit not by much. Overall, business activity in wholesale and retail trade saw the most prominent growth in December. Companies continued to be pessimistic about business prospects in December, but the pessimism was less than the previous month, with concerns mainly coming from increased competition. Since sales prospects were not seen favorably, companies continued to reduce staff for the seventh time this year, with the reduction in positions, although slight, differing from the hiring increase in the previous month and being the largest decline in 3 months. As for overall input costs, they continued to rise in December but the rate of increase had fallen to near a 4-year low. After a 32-month consecutive increase, employee costs stabilized, but the increase in purchase prices was the largest in 15 months, higher than the long-term average. With raw material prices rising, purchasing costs continued to increase, becoming the main driver of overall input costs. Despite this, companies did not pass on the additional costs to customers, instead lowering selling prices for the first time in 7 months to maintain sales. Jingyi Pan, Deputy Director of the Global Market Intelligence and Economic Research Department at Standard & Poor's Global, stated that the data reflects ongoing growth momentum at the end of 2024. The fourth-quarter average output index reached its highest level since the second quarter of 2023, reflecting an improvement in economic growth compared to previous quarters, but the growth pace slowed in December, and leading indicators also suggest that the trend of slowing growth is likely to continue into 2025. In addition, weakening external demand dampened the growth momentum in the last month of 2024. Companies, in order to maintain sales, not only faced rising costs but also began to lower selling prices, indicating that the profit pressure facing businesses is increasing. Looking at data from different industries, wholesale and retail trade were the most affected in December.