REVIEW
9
bounds. It is estimated that local consumer prices have increased by about a half over the past 10 years. The net result has been an increase of around 50 per cent in average real wages and a significant improvement in the standard of living of ordinary people. Evidence of this improvement is clear. Home ownership has more than trebled since 1961. Stalls in the most unlikely areas sell items such as fruit, chewing gum, soft drinks, neckties, and plastic toys. The number of registered private cars has increased from about 35,000 in 1961 to 105,874 at the end of 1971. There is now a television set in at least seven out of every 10 households and less than four per cent of the population is without access to a set at all: 10 years ago, televi- sion was a rarity. One must look far to find many people poorly dressed. Currency in circulation increased from $1,026 million in 1961 to $2,932 million at the end of 1971. But while personal expendi- ture has increased, the traditional virtues of prudence and thrift are reflected in the growth of bank deposits. In 1961 these amounted to $3,367 million. Ten years later deposits had increased nearly sixfold to $18,785 million. To meet the demand for banking services, there were 70 incorporated banks and 431 banking offices operating at the end of 1971.
Indeed another proof of the Colony's growing up has been the emergence of the Hong Kong dollar into adulthood as a currency in its own right. The dollar had been linked to sterling at a fixed rate of 16 to the pound since 1935 and up to the devaluation of the pound in 1967. At that time, Hong Kong was given the option of determining its own parity. As a result, after an initial period of a few days when it stayed with sterling, the Hong Kong dollar was revalued upwards against the British currency by 10 per cent, to a new rate of HK$14.55 to the pound sterling. In December 1971, at the time of the agreement on new parities between the currencies of the major trading countries, Hong Kong was again given the option of deciding its own parity. As a result it was decided to maintain the gold parity of the Hong Kong dollar (and hence its parity with sterling), a move which entailed an upward revaluation in relation to the United States' dollar of 8.57 per cent. The freedom which Hong Kong now has to determine the rate of exchange of its own currency in relation to other currencies represents a considerable accretion of responsibility, and results directly from the growing strength of the Colony's economy. And all this time, the develop- ment of the physical infrastructure necessary to sustain the further economic growth of the community continued.