Hong Kong financial secretary on defense after Moody's downgrades debt outlook

Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang defended the territory’s economic prospects after ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the financial hub’s long-term debt and issuer ratings from “stable” to “negative”, Hong Kong Free Press reported. Moody’s cited risks to China’s economic stability and growing political links weighing on Hong Kong’s institutional strength as the basis for revising its rating of the territory’s financial outlook, which came three days after the ratings agency downgraded its outlook on China’s government debt to “negative”. But Tsang maintained that “Hong Kong is in a good position to benefit from the structural rebalancing in the Mainland’s economy from investment to consumption”.