REVIEW OF THE YEAR
The Colony's deficit on balance of payments with Japan then stood at only $163 million (£10 million)-substantially less than half of the figure at the end of 1952.
For the past two years a significant trend in the develop- ment of the Colony's trade has been the rapid expansion of local industries. In the year under review the average monthly exports of locally manufactured products was some $60 million (£4 million), almost one quarter of the average monthly total of all exports. More information about Hong Kong's increas- ing industrial activities is given in the chapter on Production later in this report.
The Retail Price Index for all items (with March, 1947 = 100) rose seven points between June and October, as compared with a rise of two points in the same periods of 1952 and 1951, Although food prices normally rise during the hot season, with the shortage of fresh vegetables, a considerable portion of the increase in 1953 was due to unexpected reductions in the supplies of pork, poultry and eggs from the mainland.
One of the most remarkable features of Hong Kong since the war has been its constantly changing appearance. This is partly due to the neglect which buildings of all types suffered during the Japanese occupation and partly to the enterprise of all sections of the community in overcoming the shortage of building sites by more intensive redevelopment of old sites. Changes are even more noticeable because of the quite extra- ordinary speed with which sites are formed and new buildings constructed. 1953 added its quota to the changing landscape. More large blocks of flats sprang up on both sides of the harbour and in the town itself, several blocks of Victorian office buildings were torn down to be replaced by functional buildings of modern design and construction, yielding consider- ably increased cubic capacity by the substitution of low ceilings and air-conditioning, for the high airy rooms in which compradore and taipan once wrote beneath their punkahs. As
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