HSBC, Bank of China, Hang Seng Bank and Standard Chartered, as well as Bank of East Asia, have all raised their interest rates for the first time in four years. It follows the Federal Reserve's decision to again hike US borrowing costs to try to tame inflation. Annemarie Evans reports:

The Financial Secretary Paul Chan says he does not believe the latest hike in US interest rates will lead to a sharp drop in Hong Kong’s property market. But he said it would likely slow external demand, hitting the SAR’s exports, and he warned of a continuing recession ahead. Maggie Ho reports:

The chairman of Professional Property Services says he expects local property prices to go down a further 10 percent before the end of the year. Despite this, Nicholas Brooke was reluctant to see any intervention from the government in the form of property cooling measures being removed, such as the double stamp duty. He spoke to Samantha Butler:

Police have arrested three more doctors on suspicion of issuing exemption certificates for Covid vaccine passes, without actually giving the recipients a medical check. They are thought to have charged thousands of people up to $3,000 per certificate. As Maggie Ho reports, more than 20 people thought to have procured such certificates have also been arrested:

A private doctor says it is obvious 'wrongdoing' is involved in the cases of vaccine exemption certificates being improperly issued to people. Police have so far rounded up some half a dozen doctors, accused of selling thousands of certificates to people. Dr Samuel Kwok, the president of the Association of Private Medical Specialists of Hong Kong, says the sheer number of the certificates being issued by a single doctor was “phenomenal” and indicated a proper medical consultations was not held. But he told Ben Tse that he expected the cases were not widespread:

Medical-sector lawmaker David Lam says it is shameful that some medical practitioners might have been doling out exemption certificates for Covid jabs to people without thoroughly examining them. He said over 90 percent of people in Hong Kong could get the Sinovac or BioNTech Covid jabs without suffering side effects and would not need a medical exemption. Lam told Frank Yung that doctors who improperly issue the certificates were hampering Hong Kong’s reopening and economic recovery:

Health officials say Hong Kong's latest wave of Covid infections has "obviously peaked" and hospital services which were suspended can now gradually return to normal. They made the comments after the SAR saw another 5,990 infections, including 163 imported cases. Frank Yung reports:

Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau says scrapping all quarantine and medical surveillance requirements is one option the government will consider when it comes to further opening up Hong Kong's borders. At present, inbound travellers are required to stay at a quarantine hotel for three nights followed by four nights of home medical surveillance. Natale Ching reports:

Customs officers say they have arrested a director of the cake shop chain, Crostini, which abruptly closed down last week. It said it had taken the action after receiving complaints from some customers about prepaid coupons they couldn't redeem, as Joanne Wong reports:

A 67-year-old driver of a cement mixer has died after his vehicle plunged from an elevated highway in Cheung Sha Wan, and was then hit by a school bus. Wendy Wong reports:

The former justice minister on the mainland, Fu Zhenghua, faces life in prison after a court handed him a suspended death sentence for taking bribes and "bending the law". The Intermediate People's Court in the city of Changchun said his death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment after a two-year reprieve. Kenny Hodgart reports:

A Chinese worker who tended to his injured colleagues following a deadly earthquake and then got lost in mountainous Sichuan has been rescued 17 days later, in what state media have called a "miracle of life". The 6.8-magnitude quake struck the southwestern province earlier this month, killing nearly 100 people and forcing thousands to be resettled into temporary camps. Aaron Tam reports: