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Wenweipo conducted a questionnaire survey on Jan 7 on streets of Sheung Wan, Causeway Bay, Wong Tai Sin, Cheung Sha Wan and Shatin to find out changes in lai see budget of this year as compared to that of last year. The survey interviewed 159 married people.Results show that due to the economic downturn, 45% of the respondents will lower their budget for “giving away lai sees (red packets)”. The average budget of lai see money will see a fall of 22% from HK$3,835 last year to HK$2,997 this year.
Average people of Hong Kong will “tighten their belts” and the money put aside for lai sees will reduce considerably. Although 66% of the respondents still plan to put HK$20 in each lai see as people normally did, it is a drop of 10 percentage point as compared to last year. The number of people who plan to put HK$50 in each lai see drops remarkably by 40%. And it appears that nobody will put HK$100 in a lai see. Ten-dollar lai sees, on the contrary, will increase dramatically this year. Those who claimed that they will give 10-dollar lai sees account for 29.5% of the respondents, an increase of 68% over last year.
As regards the total amount of lai see spending, those who have a budget between HK$1,000 and HK$1,999 account for 30% of the respondents, a dramatic increase of 85% compared with last year. The percentage of people who put aside less than HK$1,000 also increases by 30%. Two respondents, who have lost their jobs unexpectedly, said that they will not give away lai sees even though they are married. The number of people who have a generous lai see budget of HK$10,000 drops significantly by 70%.
Mrs Leung, who lives in North Point, made a handsome profit in the stock market in 2007 and she gave away lai sees totaling nearly HK$10,000. Last year even an acquaintance would receive two lai sees of HK$50 each. Those given to close relatives were either of HK$500 or HK$1,000 each. However, this year, having suffered losses from market fluctuations, she has abstained from trading. She plans to reduce the amount per lai see to HK$20 to HK$100 each, cutting the total budget by half to between HK$5,000 and HK$6,000. ■Translated by開明
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