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Wednesday, March 1, 1972
HONG KONG'S OVERALL ECONOMIC GROWTH RATE WILL BEGIN TO PICK UP
IN SECOND HALF OF 1973
Prediction By Financial Secretary In Budget Address
The Financial Secretary predicted today that Hong Kong's
overall economic growth will remain at around ten per cent in 1972 and in the early months of 1973 but will begin to pick up again within
18 months, that is, in the second half of 1973.
He made the prediction in his Budget speech in the Legislative
Council when ho reviewed the economic background against which the
Colony's draft estimates of revenue and expenditure have been prepared.
He said that in the latter half of 1973 income and employment
levels of the major economies of Europe and North America were expected
to rise and world trade was expected again to expand.
His prediction was based on the assumption that undue
discrimination would not be exercised against Hong Kong by the governments of Hong Kong's major trading partners, either in the context of particular
sectors of Hong Kong's trade or in the context of the Generalized
Preferences Scheme for developing countries.
From preliminary estimates of Hong Kong's national income for the six year period 1966/71, prepared by the Census and Statistics Department, it seemed that the effect of the 1967 disturbances was most marked in 1968, when the Colony's overall growth rate was of the
He defined national income as order of four to five per cent only.
Gross National Product at current market prices.
In the.