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Q. Is there any fear that the recession in the West in the United States
will actually drag down HK as well
S
A
for instance restriction?
A. This is one aspect of recession whether it is in America or Europe
This that it will produce political pressures for further restriction. is something which HK has had to live with to a greater or lesser extent for a long time, and of course we are concerned about this. But on more general grounds we are watching the economy of the US very carefully. It is in a recessionary situation and we don't know how deep it is going to go or how long it is going to go. No two American commentators seem to agree on what is going to happen. The existence of an election year makes it all the more difficult to forecast. So far this year HK's economy has performed surprisingly well. Increase in growth of exports in the first half of the year between 15 and 17 per cent. We don't expect that growth rate to be continued in the second half of the year but the FS's forecast at the time of his budget speech of 9 per cent
Nevertheless order growth during the year might well be achieved. books are holding up not too badly, but orders are tending to come in
It does particularly from the States rather more slowly than usual.
not mean to say they won't come in, but they are coming rather more slowly, and we certainly expect the growth in exports to fall off in the second half of the year! Just to what extent it is impossible to say
Land "next year
because this is such a quickly adapting economy.
Q. A question to ask on the Green Paper 1. is it true that you personally
wrote most of it? 2. would you care to comment on criticisms that your senior officials do not seem to have much idea as to how it might work even in the form of the Green Paper?
A. Since my Civil Servants wrote it I think they do have an idea of how it
works, a very clear idea. I don't say that since it was something in which I am extremely interested there wasn't a word or two in the Green Paper that I wrote but basically it is the work of the Civil Servants.
/ Shall I