To: Export Service Bulletin Section,
Export Services Branch,
Name of Country
Quarterly Report
1 January, 1970.
Hong Kong and Macao
Rate of Exchange :
£1.
Hong Kong HK 14.545 Macao Patacas 14.545 = £1.
Hong Kong's booming prosperity continued in the last
quarter of the year with no sign of a let up.
There were,
to be sure, the inevitable Jonahs who claimed that such an
economic upsurge was too good to last but the financial
experts have assured us that there is no sign of overheating
in the economy. Wages have certainly increased, dramatically
in the more skilled jobs, but prices, although also rising,
have done so at a sufficiently moderate tempo to ensure an
increase in the real income of the mass of the population.
Signs of increasing prosperity are the continued rise
in exports by an average of 25% over the previous year, the
spectacular increase in the activity of the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange and the opening of a second Stock Exchange on 17th
December. Tourism continued to expand and as a result of
the ensuing shortage of hotel accommodation, plans for the
building of a number of major hotels are now being put into
operation. The most striking indication of foreign confi-
dence and of the crying need for new hotels was the sale on
long lease to an American company of a piece of land in
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