TNAG-0247-FCO40-283-Exchange-of-newsletters-between-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Off-1970 — Page 33

To: Export Service Bulletin Section,

Export Services Branch,

Name of Country

Quarterly Report

1 January, 1970.

Hong Kong and Macao

Rate of Exchange :

£1.

Hong Kong HK 14.545 Macao Patacas 14.545 = £1.

Hong Kong's booming prosperity continued in the last

quarter of the year with no sign of a let up.

There were,

to be sure, the inevitable Jonahs who claimed that such an

economic upsurge was too good to last but the financial

experts have assured us that there is no sign of overheating

in the economy. Wages have certainly increased, dramatically

in the more skilled jobs, but prices, although also rising,

have done so at a sufficiently moderate tempo to ensure an

increase in the real income of the mass of the population.

Signs of increasing prosperity are the continued rise

in exports by an average of 25% over the previous year, the

spectacular increase in the activity of the Hong Kong Stock

Exchange and the opening of a second Stock Exchange on 17th

December. Tourism continued to expand and as a result of

the ensuing shortage of hotel accommodation, plans for the

building of a number of major hotels are now being put into

operation. The most striking indication of foreign confi-

dence and of the crying need for new hotels was the sale on

long lease to an American company of a piece of land in

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