Hong Kong faces first recession in decades after months of protests

Lai, who is also facing a national security trial, has been found guilty of concealing the operation of a consultancy firm at Apple Daily's headquarters.

Overseas travelers will now be allowed to visit bars and restaurants immediately after arriving in Hong Kong. But several other COVID rules remain in place.

A Hong Kong judge has criticized police for banning a vigil to mourn the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The court overturned the conviction of an activist who had urged people to attend.

Travelers will no longer need to take a PCR test on arrival as the city moves to scrap a range of coronavirus measures starting Thursday.

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, is warning that this year will be tougher than the last and that the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and higher interest rates will weigh heavily on the global economy. She expects the EU to be particularly hard hit, with half of its members seeing declines in growth.

The global economy is at an inflection point. The IMF projects that a third of the world economy will be in recession next year. War in Europe, a slowdown in China and soaring inflation have contributed to widespread pessimism around a growing, multifaceted economic crisis.

The EU's Economic Commissioner said the bloc had encouraging economic news and may avoid a much-feared deep recession in 2023.

Gloomy economic forecasts have cast a long shadow over this year's event in the Swiss Alps. But Georgieva said that although the IMF projects 2023 to be "a difficult year" and for growth to fall further, "we don't expect a global recession". She cited resilient labour markets and consumer spending, the post-Covid reopening of China and signs of inflation trending downwards.

Hong Kong authorities have barred from entry a Japanese photographer who documented the 2019 protests. Experts worry the crackdown on local media is being expanded to foreign journalists.

The German economy is withstanding the aftershock of the Ukraine war better than prior projections showed.

What's left of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement? Since the implementation of the 2020 National Security law, police have been arresting anti-regime activists en masse. Most are now in prison or in exile. Authorities dissuade and crack down on all forms of protest.

The International Monetary Fund has given a brighter outlook in its latest report than in October, predicting that inflation will slow. It said that European economies had shown more resilience than expected.