9.
At a time when the economy was operating at full capacity, public sector expenditure grew more slowly than that
of the private sector. This minimised, as was entirely appropriate, the extent to which resources were absorbed by the
public sector (4).
(4)
Government expenditure in national accounts terms differs from that shown in the Consolidated Account. Details of the difference are given in Appendix A. In national accounts terms, public sector expenditure grew by about 6% in 1987; the corresponding growth rate of private sector expenditure was about 12%. Taking into account changes in prices, the share of public sector expenditure in aggregate domestic demand dropped from 11% in 1986 to 10.6% in 1987. However, as regards expenditure on building and construction, a growth rate of 6.9% was recorded for the public sector in 1987, compared with a figure of 6.4% for the private sector.
(5) Hong Kong's visible trade in 1987:
% increase
$ million
in money terms
Domestic exports
195,254
26.8
Re-exports
182,780
49.2
Total exports
378,034
36.7
Imports*
379,989
36.9
Visible trade balance
(1,955)
Visible trade deficit as a percentage
of the total value of imports of goods
0.5%
including an estimate of imports of gold for industrial and commercial
use.
/10. During
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