HK$11 billion sits in the government's revised surplus, and the twenty-kilogram bag of Thai fragrant rice at Pei Ho Street Market still lists at HK$219, up HK$14 from the same week last year, a gap the woman running the stall absorbs because her Yuen Long contract supplier raised the minimum order in February and BOCHK's Cheung Sha Wan branch declined a working-capital top-up in March, citing risk appetite.

The Financial Secretary, in an RTHK statement this week, attributed Q1's 5.9% GDP expansion, the strongest print since 2021, to "business agility." The April retail sales figures from C&SD are due in three weeks and will show whether household consumption moved with the headline; until then, carrying a household through a week of cooking in Sham Shui Po has not changed in cost: HK$219.