XN000022-1973-03-01 — Page 6

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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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