Hong Kong to cut 10k civil service jobs, invest in AI to tackle deficit

Hong Kong will cut thousands of civil service jobs and boost spending in artificial intelligence as it seeks to tackle an increasing deficit, authorities said Wednesday.

Finance Secretary Paul Chan said during a budget speech that there would be a cumulative reduction of government recurrent expenditure by 7 per cent from now until 2027-2028.

Hong Kong’s deficit had reached 87.2 billion Hong Kong dollars ($11.2 billion) for the financial year of 2024-2025, making it the third straight year of losses.