Results of monthly survey on business situation of small and medium-sized enterprises for September 2025
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The current diffusion index (DI) on business receipts amongst SMEs increased from 42.3 in August 2025 in the contractionary zone to 43.8 in September 2025, whereas the one-month’s ahead (i.e. October 2025) outlook DI on business receipts was 47.2. Analysed by sector, the current DIs on business receipts, despite below the 50-mark, rose in September 2025 as compared with previous month for all surveyed sectors, particularly for the real estate (from 43.9 to 47.1), retail trade (from 41.1 to 42.8) and logistics (from 40.5 to 42.2).
The current DI on new orders for the import and export trades increased from 44.2 in August 2025 to 46.5 in September 2025, whereas the outlook DI on new orders in one month’s time (i.e. October 2025) was 47.3.
Commentary
A Government spokesman said that business sentiment among SMEs and their outlook in one month’s time both showed further improvements in September. The overall employment situation was stable.
Looking ahead, the resilient local economy, together with sustained growth in other economies in Asia, in particular the Mainland, will provide support to business sentiment in Hong Kong, notwithstanding the ongoing uncertainties in the external environment. The Government will monitor the situation closely.
Further information
The Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises aims to provide a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for assessing the short-term business situation faced by SMEs. SMEs covered in this survey refer to companies with fewer than 50 persons engaged. Respondents were asked to exclude seasonal fluctuations in reporting their views. Based on the views collected from the survey, a set of diffusion indices (including current and outlook diffusion indices) is compiled. A reading above 50 indicates that the business condition is generally favourable, whereas that below 50 indicates otherwise. As for statistics on the business prospects of prominent companies in Hong Kong, users may refer to the publication entitled "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey" released by the C&SD.
The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. The survey solicits feedback from a panel sample of about 600 SMEs each month and the survey findings are thus subject to sample size constraint. Views collected from the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own companies rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in. Besides, in this type of opinion survey on expected business situation, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the business situation accords with the underlying trends. For this survey, main bulk of the data were collected around the last week of the reference month.
More detailed statistics are given in the "Report on Monthly Survey on the Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1080015&scode=300).
Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact Industrial Production Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7246; email: sme-survey@censtatd.gov.hk).
Ends/Monday, October 13, 2025
Issued at HKT 16:30
Issued at HKT 16:30
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