XN000022-1974-03-27 — Page 13

11

+

Wednesday, March 27, 1974

INTERIM REPORTS ON THE ECONOMY

Economic Review Committee To Be Set Up

The Government intends to publish interim reviews on the state

of the economy during each year

probably in April, July and October,

the Financial Secretary, Mr. Philip Haddon-Cave announced today.

Speaking in the resumed Budget debate in the Legislative Council,

he also proposed the formal establishment of an Economic Review Committee

whose membership would include Unofficials and Officials.

He said that the first issue of the interim economic reviews for

this year "is in hand" and would appear next month.

The Government, Mr. Haddon-Cave said, had been for some time

keeping under constant review the economic problems of the day with the re-

establishment of a central statistical department in 1968 and the formation

of an Economic Analysis Unit of the Economic Branch in 1972.

The end products of the activities of the staff concerned are the

Monthly Digest of Statistics, the annual estimates of the gross domestic product and the annual publication known as the Economic Background to the

Budget.

The Economic Background, Mr. Haddon-Cave said, "is designed to

review the developments in the economy over the past year and to set the

stage, so to speak, for the forecast of our economic prospects for the coming

year so that the Budget can be constructed on a rational basis."

/He said