HK's 9-month deficit hits 9.1 bln dlrs at end-december

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 01, 2004

HK's 9-month deficit hits 9.1 bln dlrs at end-december

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Hong Kong government deficit stood at 71 billion HK dollars (9.1 billion US dollars) for the first nine months of this financial year, less than that of expectation, according to the government announcement.

A spokesman said Saturday that expenditure for the period Aprilto December 2003 amounted to 182 billion HK dollars (23.3 billion US dollars) while revenue came to 111 billion HK dollars (14.2 billion US dollars), resulting the current deficit.

Li Wenhui, local finance expert was quoted by Sunday's OrientalDaily as saying that the fiscal deficit may hit 60 billion HK dollars (7.7 billion US dollars) to 65 billion HK dollars (8.3 billion US dollars), less than that formerly expected by the financial secretary Henry Tang.

Tang said in October that the deficit of this financial year may amount to 780 billion HK dollars. He said the government has set a target to solve its deficit problem by 2008-09.

Li Wenhui said that Hong Kong's economy has shown signs of rebound and the government revenue income is expected to increase in the coming two months. The deficit condition therefore may be improved.

The fiscal reserve stood at 244.5 billion HK dollars (31.35 billion US dollars) on Dec. 31, 2003.

Henry Tang will give an up-to-date assessment of the expected deficit for the entire financial year in his budget speech on March 10.

Source: Xinhua

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