The rate hike followed the US Federal Reserve's decision to raise the benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent on Wednesday, its first move in nearly a decade.
While Hong Kong has successfully weathered previous US rate hikes, the latest increase comes at an increasingly uncertain time for the city as it grapples with the impact of a slowdown in China and a struggling retail and tourism sector. As part of a three-decade long system, Hong Kong tracks US interest rate moves as its currency is part of an increasingly rare group to be pegged to the greenback