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FAQ: Standard Chartered GBA Business Confidence Indices Q4-2025 Results
TL;DR
Standard Chartered and HKTDC's GBA Index reveals Hong Kong's strong recovery offers competitive advantages for businesses expanding into Middle Eastern markets like UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The Standard Chartered GBA Business Confidence Index measures business sentiment through quarterly surveys of over 1,000 companies across five sub-indices tracking operations and expansion plans.
The GBA Index helps businesses navigate expansion challenges, fostering economic growth and stronger international connections between Greater Bay Area companies and Middle Eastern markets.
Over half of GBA businesses plan Middle East expansion, with 99.2% relying on Hong Kong's professional services to overcome regulatory and cultural barriers.
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The GBAI is a joint index released by Standard Chartered and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) that measures business sentiment among companies in the Greater Bay Area, tracking both current performance and future expectations.
The GBAI indices showed a moderate quarter-on-quarter retreat in Q4-2025, with the 'current performance' index dropping to 50.3 and 'expectations' to 51, but both remained in expansionary territory indicating broadly positive outlook despite external uncertainties.
The retreat resulted from diminishing returns from front-loading activities and a more cautious approach to investment, financing, and capacity utilization amid ongoing external uncertainties, with subdued growth in loans and fixed-asset investment in the Chinese Mainland also contributing.
Hong Kong's readings were well above the survey average, with its 'current performance' sub-index up 5.7 points to 57.9 and 'expectations' up 1.8 points to 55.4, outperforming peer cities across the GBA.
Hong Kong's sustained recovery in growth momentum was attributed to the city's 'professional services' and 'retail/wholesale' sectors, with buoyant business activity and solid professional services performance supporting the recovery trajectory.
Over half of respondents (54.8%) expressed interest in expanding into the Middle East, with the UAE (53.9%) and Saudi Arabia (53.2%) selected as the top two priority markets, and nearly 60% of interested companies were engaged in trading/distribution activities.
Despite the retreat in indices, the positive 'expectations' sub-indices for production/sales, new orders and profits suggest a strong likelihood that robust demand will persist through Q1-2026 and beyond, with Hong Kong's recovery momentum expected to remain intact.
The index was jointly released by Standard Chartered and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), with commentary provided by Wing Chu, Deputy Director of Research, HKTDC.
Curated from NewMediaWire
