The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) turned into a war zone on Tuesday, dominated by a huge fire and smoke, road barricades and fierce confrontation between rioters and police. Photo: Web

Hong Kong announced on Friday that its economy had contracted 2.9 percent in the third quarter, officially entering a technical recession.

Hong Kong's economy saw an abrupt deterioration in the third quarter of 2019, as social unrest has dealt a severe blow to an economy already weakened by a global economic slowdown and trade tensions between the Chinese mainland and the US, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in a press release on Friday. 

The contraction in the third quarter from a year earlier marked the city's first year-on-year decline since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Total exports of goods shrank by 7.1 percent year-on-year in real terms during the third quarter, while exports of services plunged by 13.8 percent as inbound tourism suffered severely from months of unrest and increasing violence. 

Domestic demand was also hit in the third quarter, with private consumption expenditure falling by 3.4 percent in real terms, its first year-on-year decline in more than 10 years, according to the press release.