The deficit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government for the financial year that ended on March 31, 2004, was 40.1 billion HK dollars (5.14 billion US dollars), lower than the government estimate earlier.

The official statistics released Friday show that the expenditure in the last financial year amounted to 247.4 billion HK dollars (31.7 billion US dollars) and revenue to 207.3 billion HK dollars (26.6 billion US dollars).

A government spokesman said that the deficit of 40.1 billion HK dollars represented an improvement of 8.9 billion HK dollars (1.14 billion US dollars) over the revised estimate of 49 billion HK dollars (6.3 billion US dollars) announced in the Budget Speech in March.

Expenditure of 247.4 billion HK dollars was 5.4 billion HK dollars (0.69 billion US dollars) lower than the revised estimate due to lower-than-expected operating expenditure, and spending in capital works and non-works projects, as well as a lower-than-anticipated take-up in a number of loan assistance schemes.

Revenue of 207.3 billion was 3.5 billion (0.45 billion US dollars) more than expected, largely as a result of additional receipts from earnings and profits tax, stamp duties and land selling.

On March 31, 2004, the fiscal reserves stood at 275.3 billion HK dollars (35.3 billion US dollars).

The final results for the financial year 2003-04 are broadly the same as the provisional results published on April 28, 2004, said the government spokesman.

Source: Xinhua