Budgets are principally about numbers but the language used to convey the income and expenditure estimates of a country or jurisdiction often help to illuminate the bald figures.
On Wednesday, that was particularly pertinent as Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan generously peppered his second annual budget speech with the word “external” and more often than not together with the words “shock”, “uncertainty”, “headwinds” and “pressures”.
Chan's message was clear in a volatile and unpredictable world buffeted by a superpower trade war, shrinking economic growth and a beast called Brexit, this is not the time to take any chances at least for the...
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