The U.S. should follow Hong Kong's lead and give a cash handout to its citizens amid the coronavirus pandemic, a strategist told CNBC Friday.

"This is not a financial crisis," Andrew Freris, CEO of Ecognosis Advisory, told CNBC's "Capital Connection." "It is a crisis about the real economy."

He noted that in 2008, central banks used stimulus to respond to the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market — but he said nothing of the kind was happening right now.

"The concern here is what's going to happen with the real economy," he said. "Now I'm afraid pumping in more money to support the financial sector does absolutely nothing where the real problem is."

Although he said it was good news to see central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve take steps to support financial markets, Freris added that lowering interest rates would do "absolutely nothing" to address the core cause of the current economic turmoil.

Central banks around the world, including the Fed, Bank of England and Norges Bank have cut their key interest rates in an attempt to offset some of the economic damage being wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic. While the European Central Bank decided to hold rates steady on Thursday, it did unveil an increased stimulus package.

"Hong Kong, however much it's been criticized, they did something quite right — they gave money to the people, 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,287) for all its individual citizens," Freris told CNBC on Friday.



He said that the U.S. has a population of around 330 million people and could technically give $1,000 per month to each citizen. Even after this, "they will still have plenty of money still to come — and this is money that will go straight into consumption," he said.