By DPA,
Hong Kong : More than 1,600 Hong Kong companies filed for bankruptcy in February, the highest monthly figure since 2004, the government announced Friday.
The figure is more than double the number that filed for bankruptcy in January and highlights the growing impact of the global recession on the wealthy city of seven million people.
Hong Kong officially slid into recession at the end of 2008 after recording two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. The city’s jobless rate has meanwhile risen to a three-year high of five percent from just over three percent last year.
Property prices in the former British colony have fallen steeply since the start of the global economic crisis and the benchmark Hang Seng Index has lost more than half its value since the beginning of 2008.