Hong Kong's financial Secretary Paul Chan says next year Hong Kong will have it's first budget deficit since 2004. 

Delivering forecasts for economy for the next fiscal year he said that the riots and unrest had contributed to a 2% decline in GDP and the economy is facing extraordinary difficulties.

At the legislative Council headquarters the message was bleak: the Hong Kong economy is in a severe downturn. 

These social incidents have caused so much harm to the economy our government economists have assessed that the damage is equivalent to 2 percent of our GDP" 

The other numbers are just as bleak for 2019 -investment is down 16%, property prices down 5% , household incomes down 1.3% the first drop in a decade and unemployment is starting to rise, in the catering sector alone it's now at 6.1 % - and newly released figures for October retail sales in Hong Kong were dismal. 

"The retail sector is hit badly. The main thing is because of we look at the tourism and the tourism related industries like the retail sector and also the hotel accommodation plus also the restaurant business," said Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu, an Economist. 

The Hong Kong government has tried to stimulate the economy and may put into more measures aimed at reliving the economic stress of the city's citizens but without tourists or an end to the violence plus the political stalemate the forecast for 2020 is that Hong Kong will continue to struggle estimates range of between a contraction of 0.7% to growth of just 1.7%, those figure could be revised down. 

From Hong Kong's massive real estate market to its burgeoning retail sales everything is taking a massive hit right now and the uncertainty created by the continuing protests means that investments for the future are being held back, Hong Kong's development as a 21st century economy is really in the balance.