Word: kong
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China's economy expanded 6.1% on annualized basis in the first quarter, its slowest pace since 1998. Singapore's GDP contracted an astounding 19.7% in the same period - after shrinking 16.4% in the previous quarter. Hong Kong has yet to report first-quarter numbers, but its economic performance in the final quarter 2008 does not inspire confidence: GDP growth was minus 2.5%. In the same period, the South Korean economy contracted 5.6% while Japan, Asia's largest economy and the world's second biggest, shrank...
...wouldn't know it from the stock markets, though. Three weeks into April, the MSCI Pacific Index, which includes Australia and Japan, is up 10.4% for the month, and 3% over three months. The MSCI Australia Index has risen 6.6% month-to-date, the Hong Kong index 15%, and Japan 11%. Even hapless Singapore is doing well, thank you very much, boasting gains of 11.7% in the month to April 20 and 7.6% over three months.Read "China Takes On the Global Car Business...
...niche at another of the city's public columbaria, but was turned away after spaces filled up. "Hopefully this time I'll find a place for my father so he can finally rest," says Wong, while waiting in line at Diamond Hill with his mother. (See pictures of Hong Kong since it was handed over to China...
...remains and yield the plot to someone else. Some residents have sent bodies abroad to bury, particularly in the U.S. and Canada, or looked across the border to China, but the journey to visit such graves can be taxing for older relatives. Jockeying for burial space in Hong Kong has become so intense that last year 18 cemetery supervisors were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes in order to exhume remains before they had fully decomposed. (See a map of population density in Chinese cities...
...something has to give. Hong Kong's population of 7 million is aging fast. In 2008, 12% of the population was over the age of 65; by 2036, that number will rise to 26%. The city's death rate has doubled since 1970, leaving the entire funeral industry scrambling to cope with the rising demand. The government is installing more efficient cremators, but today bodies must be stored in morgues - often two to a compartment - for as long as two weeks before cremation can be completed...