C.F. 32.
-
- 5-
Table 3
5.
Industrial
machinery was the largest
category amongst all retained imports of capital goods (accounting for 21% of the total value in the first three quarters of 1990), followed by transport equipment (18%), office machinery (8%), and electronic components and parts for computers
(7%). A breakdown of retained imports of capital goods by major categories, along with their
respective
in Table
3.
growth rates in money terms, is given Because of the difficulty 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 the table, as the increase 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
6.
In
the third quarter, investment activity in the manufacturing sector continued to be dampened by the sluggish performance of domestic exports. Retained imports of industrial machinery for manufacturing use declined by about
7% in the third quarter. The corresponding rates,
of decline in the first and second quarters were
4% (Table 2). The relocation of
base to Southern China and other places
in South East Asia by some manufacturers might
have affected the level of investment locally.
Moreover, the outbreak of the Gulf crisis in
August, which had created uncertainty in the
global economy, might have also restrained
investment interest in the short term.
15% and
production
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