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Sir,
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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON LYDIA DUNN, CBE, LLD, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 27.3.85
Budget Debate 1985
We must all applaud the Government's efforts to rein in the growth of public sector expenditure, which some of us thought was practically out of control in the early 1980s. Nevertheless, though we are past the worst of the recession the growth of the economy in 1985 is forecast by the Financial Secretary to be less than in 1984 and we have not yet achieved
our aim that the growth of public sector expenditure should not
over the years exceed that of GDP. Despite all the creditable
efforts that have been made, the relative size of the public
sector has declined by less than three percentage points since
the peak reached in 1982-83 and it is still higher than it was
before the bulge of 1981-82 to 1983-84 and is forecast to
decline only minimally in the coming year to 16 per cent.
may be compared with the average ratio for the four years
ending 1981-82 of 14.3 per cent.
This
When public sector
These are not just arid figures. growth is too high this means that we are drawing too high a proportion of our resources away from the profitable economic activity on which our economic prosperity and hence our public
revenues depend. We are not back on course yet and it is at
least arguable whether any growth in public sector expenditure
is wise for the time being.
I have been using the "adjusted" figures for
consolidated account expenditure that the Financial Secretary
has provided in the tables appended to the Budget Speech, yet in the 1982 Budget Speech he said that "the definition of
Consolidated Account Expenditure results arguably in too loose
a leash on expenditure by the MTR now and the KCR soon".
would go further than that. The definition produces a
positively misleading figure for public sector expenditure.
I
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