HONG KONG, China — The head of the Hong Kong’s de-facto central bank, Norman Chan, will step down this year after a decade in the post that saw him oversee the city’s recovery from the global financial crisis as well as a ballooning property market. Local reports cited sources as saying the government would likely to promote one of his three deputies to take over at the helm of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority when Chan retires in October. While Chan has introduced a number measures to keep it from rising further, but mostly to no avail. During his tenure the HKMA has also been forced to step in to the currency markets to maintain the local dollar’s decades-old peg to the greenback. The latest was last year, when the Hong Kong dollar weakened to the bottom end of its 7.75-7.85 trading band, prompting HKMA to buy billions of US dollars worth of the local currency.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer February 22, 2019 07:30 UTC