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Thursday, March 1, 1973
Another publication tabled yesterday was an Economic Background to
the Budget, which comments upon the gross domestic product, explores Hong
Kong's trade figurès, discusses investment, employment and the money market
and explains our external reserves.
This report points out that although it is not yet possible to measure
the price increases involved in every component of the gross domestic product,
it seems likely that if the money veil were removed, a considerable part
possibly rather more than half of the increase in G.D.P. would represent
real growth.
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Increasing Prosperity
An indication of this is provided by the index of real average daily
wages for industrial workers, which shows that the labour force has enjoyed
increasing prosperity as a consequence of a higher real G.D.P. in every year
except 1968.
Gross domestic product per capita in Hong Kong is estimated at
$5,616 for 1972. The report adds that this is not, all available for
consumption by the population at large. Some has to be spent on investment in
new capital and some on government services.
"Furthermore, national income aggregates do not measure every dimension
it remarks. They do not take into account the
of a society's achievement," it remarks.
distribution of incomes and only partly take into account the ravages of
pollution, the costs of congestion, the benefits of law and order and the
cultural enrichment of education.
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