XN000022-1971-02-24 — Page 8

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Wednesday, February 24, 1971

$550 MILLION SUR-LUS IN 1970-71

Financial Assets Total $2,300 Million

The revised estimates of revenue and expenditure for 1970-71 shoved at present a surplus of $508 million, but Sir John Cowperthwaite, Financial Secretary, said today he believed the final figure would be about $550 million.

He told the Legislative Council that preliminary accounts of the

Exchange Fund for 1970 showed a surplus, after taking account of depreciation of investments, of $134 million, so raising the free surplus in the Fund, or the excess of assets over 105 per cent of liabilities, to $276 million.

This would bring Hong Kong's financial assets on March 31, 1971,

to $2,380 million.

Sir John drew the Council's attention to "one romarkable piece of evidence, not only of the growth of our wealth, but also of its wider distribution among the people."

The extra currency issued during the holiday season this year was $615 million, compared with $459 million last year, and $305 million the

year before.

com.ented.

"It is not surprising that prices go up at Chinese New Year," he

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