Residents leaving Hong Kong for good withdrew a total of HK$2.177 billion (S$378 million) from their pension accounts in the third quarter of 2022, down 16.4 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday.

A total of 8,600 claims to withdraw from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) were made in the July-September quarter, compared with the 9,300 claims taking out HK$2.604 billion during the same period in 2021.

The figure also compared with 8,600 claims in the April-June quarter that saw withdrawals of HK$2.114 billion, and 7,500 claims withdrawing HK$2.014 billion in January-March.

The provident fund authority said multiple claims are sometimes made by a single person as a scheme member may have more than one account under the MPF System.

In the third quarter of 2022, the total number of claims for MPF on various grounds, including retirement, was 57,900, an increase of 10 per cent from the previous quarter, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority said.

Curbs to control the spread of Covid-19 are partly blamed for a net outflow of 106,955 people from Hong Kong in the first 11 months of 2022, according to data from the Immigration Department.

Hong Kong has closely followed China’s zero-Covid policy since 2020 but began gradually easing restrictions in August, cutting mandated hotel quarantine to three days before scrapping it completely in September, more than two-and-a-half years after the virus emerged.

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