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The department has undertaken that no BSA lodger will be made homeless as a result of the licensing scheme and is in the process of constructing a multi-storey hostel in Sham Shui Po for around 600 lodgers. The hostel is expected to open in mid- 1998 to coincide with the licensing scheme.
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Volume and price movements of external trade in October
In the first 10 months of 1995, the volume of re-exports increased by 15% over the same period last year, while the volume of domestic exports increased by 3.6%, according to the statistics released today (Tuesday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
Taking re-exports and domestic exports together, the volume of total exports increased by 13%. Meanwhile, imports increased by 15% in volume.
The growth in the volume of trade is derived from the growth in trade values with the effect of price changes being discounted.
As regards price changes over the same period of comparison, the prices of re- exports and domestic exports increased by 3.8% and 2.6% respectively. Import prices increased by 5.5%.
Price changes are reflected by changes in unit value indices, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, based on specific price data.
The terms of trade index, defined as the ratio of total export price index to import price index, decreased by 1.9% in the first 10 months of 1995 over the same period last year.
Comparing October 1995 with October 1994, the volume of re-exports increased by 9.2%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 4.3%. Taken together, the volume of total exports increased by 6.7%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports grew by 9.3%.
Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports and domestic exports increased by 3% and 2.3% respectively. Import prices increased by 3.3%.