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Table 2
Table 3
6.
(b)
Retained imports of capital
goods
Subject to certain statistical limitations, retained imports of capital goods provide another useful indicator of the latest trend in investment in
plant and machinery. These retained imports decreased by 9% in the third quarter and by about 19% in the fourth quarter of 1989, having increased by
18% and 7% respectively in the first and second
quarters. For 1989 as a whole, retained imports of
capital goods fell by about 28. In 1988, an increase
of 17% was recorded (Table 2).
7.
Industrial machinery is the largest
category of retained imports of capital goods
(accounting for 24% of the total value in 1989),
followed by transport equipment (14%), and electronic
components and parts for computers (9%). A breakdown of retained imports of capital goods by major categories, along with their respective growth rates in money terms, is given in Table 3. Because of the difficulties in compiling reliable price indices as the product breakdown becomes more disaggregated,
growth rates in real terms are not available for all
the categories. Caution should be exercised in
interpreting the changes in money terms shown in
Table 3, as the increases in the prices of different
categories of imported capital goods in different
periods may not be entirely uniform.
(c)
Retained imports of industrial
machinery for use in the manufacturing
sector
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