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She pointed out that European companies already had a significant stake in most sectors of Hong Kong's economy - manufacturing, trade, finance, insurance, retailing and others.
"We need to assure investors that Hong Kong will continue to be an ideal place to do business, not only in the lead up to 1997, but well into the future," Mrs Chan said.
The Chief Secretary also explained during her meetings how Hong Kong was preparing to resolve the transitional issues in co- operation with the Chinese authorities.
End/Monday, April 24, 1995
Consumer Price Indices for March 1995
The Consumer Price Index (A) in March 1995 was 9.5% higher than in March 1994, according to figures released today (Monday) by the Census and Statistics Department. This was higher than the corresponding increase of 8.9% in February this
year.
Commenting on the CPI figures for March, a Government spokesman said: "The pick-up in consumer price inflation was attributable to both continuing inflationary pressures from domestic sources as well as a greater amount of imported inflation.
"On domestically generated inflation, continuing rapid increases were recorded for rentals of private housing and prices of consumer services, and electricity charges were also raised," the spokesman said.
"As to imported inflation, there were faster price increases in recent months for foodstuffs, including fresh produce as well as processed food items. This may be due in part to the effect of inflation in China filtering through into Hong Kong via higher prices of such imported food items.
"Also showing considerable price increases since the early part of last year were clothing and footwear. This may be due to higher import prices in local currency terms brought about by the weakening of the Hong Kong dollar in line with the US dollar," the spokesman added.