HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Social unrest in Hong Kong contributed two percentage points to the city's economic contraction in the third quarter, Mr Paul Chan, financial secretary of the city's government, told legislators in a televised hearing on Friday (Dec 6), citing "rough estimates".

Hong Kong sank into recession for the first time in a decade in the third quarter, government data confirmed in November, weighed down by increasingly violent anti-government protests and the escalating United States-China trade war.

The economy shrank by 3.2 per cent in July-September from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis and contracted 2.9 per cent from the previous year, revised government data showed.