The Hong Kong government announced several fiscal stimulus to support the recession-hit economy, which was hurt last year by months of anti-government protests and recently by the coronavirus outbreak. Measures include a HKD 10000 cash payment to every permanent resident aged above 18; salary, profit and property tax cuts; cuts in examination fees for some students and in business registration fees. The total relief measures amount to around HKD 71 billion, and the government estimates the budget deficit for 2020/2021 to reach a record high of HKD 139 billion, equivalent to around 4.8% of GDP. In 2019/2020, Hong Kong recorded a 1.3% budget deficit, the first gap since the wake of SARS.

The Hong Kong economy contracted 2.9 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2019, following a 2.8 percent fall in the previous period, in line with preliminary estimates but against market expectations of a 3 percent slump. It was the second straight annual decline in GDP due to weak domestic and external demand amid violent anti-government protests and the US-China trade war. Final estimates showed private spending decreased 2.9 percent, gross fixed capital formation slumped 16.7 percent, exports and imports went down 2.7 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. On the other hand, government spending rose 6 percent. On a seasonally quarterly basis, the GDP shrank 0.3 percent, below preliminary estimates of a 0.4 percent contraction. It was the third-straight quarterly decline, keeping the economy in a technical recession. For 2019 as a whole, the GDP contracted 1.2 percent, the first annual decline since 2009, and after a 2.9 percent advance in 2018.

France's consumer confidence indicator was at 104 in February 2020, unchanged from the previous month and above market expectations of 103. Households' opinion balance on their future financial situation lost two points to -5; and that related to their expected saving capacity increased by one point to 0. Furthermore, the share of households considering it is a suitable time to make major purchases slightly decreased to -8. Meantime, the share of households considering that the future standard of living in France will improve during the next twelve months has increased sharply (-25 vs -29) and fears about the unemployment trend have declined markedly (-6 vs 6).

Norway's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 3.9 percent in the three months to January 2020, unchanged from the August-October period, but below market expectations of 4.0 percent. The number of unemployed was unchanged at 110,000 while the number of employed declined by 2,000 to 2.734 million. A year earlier, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

Lebanon’s annual inflation rate increased to 10.04 percent in January 2020, the highest rate since December 2012, as the country faces its worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990. The government has already asked for technical assistance from the IMF while the banks' capital controls have failed to stem the flight of capital from the country. The Lebanese pound is officially pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 1,500, but it has weakened to as low as 2,600 against the greenback on the parallel market following October's huge protests against the ruling elite. Prices rose faster for almost all categories including housing & utilities (4.25 percent vs 1.29 percent in December), food & non-alcoholic beverages (14.45 percent vs 9.77 percent) and transport (18.24 percent vs 14.15 percent). By contrast, health prices fell (-0.11 percent vs 0.05 percent). On a monthly basis, consumer prices climbed 2.13 percent, after jumping 2.71 percent in the prior month.

The Unicredit Bank Austria Manufacturing PMI rose to 50.2 in February of 2020 from 49.2 in the prior month. The reading pointed to the quickest expansion in factory activity since February last year after 10 straight months of decline, as both output and employment returned to growth. Still, new orders fell for the fourteenth month running, due to another drop in exports mainly to southern Europe and China. Also, lead times on input increased with companies linking delivery delays to the outbreak of coronavirus in China and subsequent supply issues. Meantime, stocks of purchases shrank the least in five months while postproduction inventories fell the most in over two years. On the price front, input costs declined for the ninth month and at the fastest pace since last September. Output charges fell only marginally and at the slowest rate in the current eight-month sequence of decline. Looking ahead, business confidence reached the strongest level since June 2018.

The Swiss investor sentiment index decreased by 0.6 points to 7.7 in February 2020 from 8.3 in the previous month. Expectations over the next half-years fell amid the coronavirus outbreak. Also, the assessment of the current economic situation dropped to 25.4 from 29.2 in January, and compared to 8.3 a year earlier.

Average gross wages in Hungary increased 13.1 percent year-on-year to HUF 406,400 in December 2019, after a 13.6 percent rise in the previous month, mainly driven by the increase of non-regular earnings such as bonuses and premiums. Average net earnings were HUF 270,200 excluding tax benefits and HUF 278,000 including them. Wages advanced at a softer pace in the public sector (11.5 percent vs 19.2 percent in November), while in the private went up further (13.2 percent vs 12.1 percent). Considering 2019 as a whole, average gross earnings were 11.4 percent higher than in 2018.

Total construction work done in Australia declined by 3.0 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to December 2019, following an upwardly revised 0.4 percent rise in the previous period and compared with market consensus of a 1 percent fall. Activities dropped for all categories: residential (-4.6 percent), building (-4.1 percent), non-residential (-3.4 percent), and engineering (-1.5 percent). Through the year to the fourth quarter, construction output tumbled 7.4 percent.