TNAG-2028-FCO40-2890-Hong-Kong-freezing-of-Kuwaiti-and-Iraqi-assets-1990 — Page 16

A

the next few weeks (for gasoline, for example, the increase

will be 60 cents from the current retail price of HK$6.18

per litre). This percentage increase should reflect the

price of crude oil having risen to US$25 per barrel. Any

further increase in the crude oil price will result in a

increase in the prices of refined products, and thus

On the basis of such an

larger

greater inflationary impact..

increase, coupled with certain

supplementary information

and assumptions. the overall effect on the Consumer Price

Index (A) is estimated to be an increase of nearly one

1

percentage point (Table 3 for details).

10.

As regards the

manufacturing sector, industries

will face an increase in fuel cost and in the cost of those

material inputs which depend heavily on oil-based fuels for

their production. As far as fuel cost is concerned, the

textile finishing, bleaching and dyeing, basic metals, food

processing and beverages industries, being relatively more

energy-intensive than others, will be more significantly

increases in their overall

affected.

Nevertheless, the

production costs as a result of a 10% increase in fuel

to be only 0.8%, 0.6%, 0.2%, 0.1% and

price are

estimated

0.1% respectively.

For the

manufacturing sector as a

whole, the

corresponding increase in production cost would

average only 0.05% (Table 4).

Because the type of

manufacturing

activity in Hong

Kong is generally less

energy-intensive

than in other

industrialised economies,