Departing Hong Kong residents took US$280m from pensions in Q3, down 16.4% yoy
RESIDENTS leaving Hong Kong for good withdrew a total of HK$2.177 billion (S$379.5 million) from their pension accounts in Q3 2022, down 16.4 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday (Dec 15).
A total of 8,600 withdrawal claims from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) were made in the July-September quarter, compared with 9,300 claims taking out HK$2.604 billion during the same period in 2021.
The figure also compared with 8,600 claims in the April-June quarter that saw withdrawals of HK$2.114 billion, and 7,500 claims withdrawing HK$2.014 billion in January-March.
The provident fund authority said that multiple claims are sometimes made by a single person, as a scheme member may have more than one account under the MPF System.
In the third quarter of 2022, the total number of claims for MPF on various grounds, including retirement, was 57,900, an increase of 10 per cent from the previous quarter, the MPF Schemes Authority said.
Curbs to control the spread of Covid-19 are partly to blame for a net outflow of 106,955 people from Hong Kong in the first 11 months of 2022, data from the Immigration Department showed.
Hong Kong has closely followed China’s zero-Covid policy since 2020, but began gradually easing restrictions in August. It cut mandated hotel quarantine to three days before scrapping it completely in September, more than two-and-a-half years after the virus emerged.
In the latest move by Hong Kong, people arriving by international flights can immediately visit the city’s restaurants, gyms and other venues for the first time in almost three years, with the lifting of restrictions that barred them from such places for the first three days. REUTERS
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
