Business expectations for third quarter of 2026
The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (July 17) the results of the Quarterly Business Tendency Survey for the third quarter (Q3) of 2026.
The Census and Statistics Department, Photo source: reference image
Business situation
For all surveyed sectors taken together, the proportion of respondents expecting their business situation to be better (10%) in Q3 2026 over the preceding quarter is lower than that expecting it to be worse (14%).
When compared with the results of the Q2 2026 survey round, the proportion of respondents expecting a better business situation in Q3 2026 is 10%, slightly lower than the corresponding proportion of 11% in Q2 2026. On the other hand, the proportion of respondents expecting a worse business situation had decreased from 16% in Q2 2026 to 14% in Q3 2026.
Analysed by sector, respondents in a number of the surveyed sectors expect their business situation to decrease on balance in Q3 2026 as compared with Q2 2026. In particular, more respondents in the transportation, storage and courier services; real estate; and professional and business services sectors expect their business situation to be worse in Q3 2026 as compared with Q2 2026. On the other hand, in the financing and insurance sector, more respondents expect their business situation to be better, as compared to those expecting it to be worse.
The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. In this type of survey on expectations, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the future accords with the underlying trends. The enumeration period for this survey round was from June 1, 2026 to July 6, 2026.
Volume of business / output
Respondents in most surveyed sectors expect their volume of business/ output to decrease on balance or remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2026 as compared with Q2 2026. In particular, more respondents in the transportation, storage and courier services sector expect their volume of business to decrease in Q3 2026 over Q2 2026. On the contrary, in the manufacturing sector, more respondents expect their volume of production to increase, as compared to those expecting it to decrease.
Employment
Respondents in a number of the surveyed sectors expect their employment to remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2026 as compared with Q2 2026. In the information and communications sector, however, more respondents expect their employment to decrease, as compared to those expecting it to increase.
Selling price / service charge
Respondents in most of the surveyed sectors expect their selling prices/service charges to remain broadly unchanged in Q3 2026 as compared with Q2 2026. In the construction sector, however, significantly more respondents expect their tender prices to go down in Q3 2026 over Q2 2026.
Photo source: reference image
Commentary
A Government spokesman said that the overall near-term business outlook among large enterprises for the third quarter of 2026 improved slightly. The overall hiring appetite stabilised, with the hiring appetite in many sectors seeing improvement.
Looking forward, the spokesman said that sustained economic expansion in Hong Kong should continue to support local business sentiment. Nonetheless, the external environment remains fluid with renewed escalation in the Middle East tensions, and the situation is still evolving. The Government will continue to closely monitor the situation for any implications on business sentiment.
Further information
The survey gathers views on short-term business performance from the senior management of about 570 prominent companies in various sectors in Hong Kong with a view to providing a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for predicting the short-term future economic performance of the local economy.
The survey covers 10 major sectors in Hong Kong, namely manufacturing; construction; import / export trade and wholesale; retail; accommodation and food services (mainly covering services rendered by hotels and restaurants); transportation, storage and courier services; information and communications; financing and insurance; real estate; and professional and business services sectors.
Views collected in the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own companies rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in, and are limited to the expected direction of quarter-to-quarter change (e.g. "up", "same" or "down") but not the magnitude of change. In collecting views on the quarter-to-quarter changes, if the variable in question is subject to seasonal variations, respondents are asked to provide the expected changes after excluding the normal seasonal variations.
Survey results are generally presented as "net balance", i.e. the difference between the percentage of respondents choosing "up" and that choosing "down". The percentage distribution of respondents among various response categories (e.g. "up", "same" and "down") reflects how varied their business expectations are. The "net balance", with its appropriate sign, indicates the direction of expected change in the variable concerned. A positive sign indicates a likely upward trend while a negative sign indicates a likely downward trend. However, the magnitude of the "net balance" reflects only the prevalence of optimism or pessimism, but not the magnitude of expected change, since information relating to such magnitude is not collected in the survey.
Furthermore, owing to sample size constraint, care should be taken in interpreting survey results involving a small percentage (e.g. less than 10%) of respondents in individual sectors.
The survey results are published in greater detail in the "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey, Q3 2026". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1110008&scode=300).
Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact the Business Expectation Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7263; email: business-prospects@censtatd.gov.hk).
Photo source: reference image
