Hong Kong Statutory late-payment interest
Hong Kong Statutory late-payment interest: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Hong Kong fixes no statutory or late-payment interest rate on unpaid debts. The only fixed figure is the Judiciary's judgment rate — 8.000% per annum from 1 July 2026, set quarterly by order of the Chief Justice — which attaches from the date of judgment, not to an overdue invoice.
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | High Court Ordinance (Cap. 4) s. 49(1): 'judgment debts shall carry simple interest' from the date of judgment until satisfaction at such rate as the Chief Justice may determine by order (District Court Ordinance (Cap. 336) s. 50(1) to the same effect); Judiciary schedule of interest on judgments: 8.000% per annum with effect from 01-07-2026 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
REFUSAL — Hong Kong has no late-payment interest statute. A creditor has no automatic entitlement to interest on an overdue debt: absent a contractual interest clause, interest arises only through litigation. PRE-JUDGMENT interest is pure judicial discretion under s. 48 of the High Court Ordinance (s. 49 of the District Court Ordinance), where the conventional starting point for commercial claims is the best lending rate ('prime') plus 1%, adjustable on the facts — not a published figure and not claimable as of right. POST-JUDGMENT interest is the judgment rate: mandatory under s. 49(1) HCO from the date of judgment until satisfaction, simple not compound, at the rate the Chief Justice determines by order. That rate is revised QUARTERLY, effective 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and the Judiciary publishes the full schedule; it stands at 8.000% per annum from 1 July 2026, having run above 8% through the high-rate period (8.875% for the whole of 2024, 8.250% for mid-2025, 8.107% from 1 January 2026) and never below 8.000% in the published series since 2000. The next revision takes effect 1 October 2026. Courts will depart from the judgment rate only in 'special circumstances', and the rate can be changed by the Chief Justice without legislation. Serving 8.000% as Hong Kong's statutory interest rate would mislabel a post-judgment court rate as a rate a business can charge on an unpaid invoice. No civil/commercial split exists; there is no equivalent of the EU Late Payment Directive, and the Law Reform Commission's recommendation for statutory interest on debt and damages has never been enacted.
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# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/hk/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
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