FINANCIAL
SECRETARY:
Sir
I have at times
to
the
stressed that my approach budget is to
to view it as a continuous process, and SO I have
already commenced planning for next year. Many of the comments made by Members in this debate will help me in my thinking, even though I may not be able to respond to all those comments today.
2.
In the course of this speech I shall, as usual, be updating some of the economic and financial background to my budget proposals in the light of recent developments. Where things have changed, I will
changed, I will comment.on the likely impact on my planning for the future.
THE ECONOMY
جو لکھا
First, the economy.
A number of Members have warned
of the risk of rising inflation and its inherent dangers.
Miss Dunn warned that both the inflation forecast for 1988-89 of
ent 7 and 78
the inflation assumption underlying the Medium Range
5.5. Forecast of might be too low. Other Members including Mr.
Kim Cham, Mr. Edward Ho, Mr. David Li and Mr. Poon Chi-fai warned that the current tight labour market and, in particular, the
pressure that will be put on it by the planned expansion in the
civil service will contribute to inflation.
三
کھتا ہے ہو
I share some of their fears in the light of the
current uncertainty about the prospects for the world economy,
and the recent tendency for prices to edge up. In putting
together my Budget package, I was aware of the risk that increased spending and reduced taxation could provide an
undesirable stimulus to the economy given that
it was already
operating close to its capacity limits. I took the view,
however, that because the overall growth rate of the economy was expected to slow down, the limited degree of stimulus involved
in the package presented was tolerable.
3
/5.