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This has been resisted; even the deficits have been financed by running down official deposits with commercial banks in Hong Kong. It has been painful medicine for the economy, but it has been fast-working medicine. Events have administered a powerful purge, which has, I believe, restored our body economic to a healthy state from the overstrained and, in some sectors, unsound position it was in 18 months ago. While the process was painful for many, progress, although slowed down, was never brought to a halt and, while wages and employment in the over-inflated construction industry came down to earth, the general level of wages and employment has not been adversely affected. And, while economic growth is unlikely ever again to reach the spectacular levels of the early 1960s, we have now, I believe, a more solid base for steady expansion- always provided the channels of international trade remain open and there is no worldwide slump.
I have, &c.
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TRENCH.
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