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1
profitable to the community, so indicates.
In the meantime we
remain conservatively within our guidelines. In today's world it is refreshing to be largely debt free with considerable
fiscal reserves.
15.
of
In my budget speech I again stressed the importance restraining public sector expenditure and the need to ensure that the growth rate of public sector expenditure
should have regard to the growth rate of the economy. The
latest estimate
some would
say intelligent guess expenditure on the Consolidated Account, based on performance
over the first five months, is $41.2 billion,
is $41.2 billion, representing a
decrease of $1.3 billion over the budget estimate.
16.
-
-
of
As a general rule the growth rate
the growth rate of public sector expenditure over a period should not outrun the growth rate of
the economy, So that the
does Government
not pre-empt
resources that would otherwise be used more effectively by the private sector for export purposes. Thus the growth rate of public sector expenditure and the relative size of the public sector must and will continue to be closely monitored. will involve difficult and indeed disputatious selection programme priorities; but I emphasise that the control is
growth. There nave not been This message has hot yet fully
is
This
of
on
cutbacks in public spending.
been taken. At present there
repeat commitment,
about of
been
I an outstanding commitment, $24.5 billion in respect of public works
public works projects in hand.
This represents
and a huge forthcoming investment in social economic infrastructure and illustrates the Government's firm intention of investing vigorously for the future.
17.
Turning now to my GDP forecast, the performance of the economy in the first half of this year and the generally improving economic prospects of Hong Kong's major trading
partners
indicate that
my
7
cautious budget
forecast
expenditure
of
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