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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
6.
Retained imports of industrial machinery for
manufacturing use continued to decrease sharply, about
15% in the first quarter (Table 2). This was in line
with the weak domestic export performance. Apart from
the sluggish overseas demand for Hong Kong's products,
relocation of production base to South China and other
places in South East Asia may have also affected the
level of investment locally.
(d)
Retained imports of capital goods other
than for manufacturing use
7.
In view of the heterogeneous nature of these
retained imports, the changes in real terms are not
sufficiently reliable to be quoted publicly.
The
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