TNAG-2215-FCO40-3182-Address-by-David-Wilson--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-the-Legis-1991 — Page 26

09-OCT-1991

16:57

SECRETARIAT D.A.U.

+852 845 7895

P.13

23

major

concern. I made the point last year that there is no

In May, the Government froze fees and charges

easy cure.

and cut back on increases in tobacco duty. Civil servants

contributed

by accepting a non-inflationary pay increase.

We

have worked hard to

restrain

other areas of public

expenditure.

45.

These

have measures

hau

some impact.

Inflatio

declined

from a peak of 13.9% in April to 12.7% in August.

This is still far too high. We must consider urgently what

else we can do to reduce inflation.

45.

The cal dongez

Smada at

too high a level if we do not tackle some of the structural

obstacles to economic growth. One of the main ones is the

acute shortage of labour in some sectors of the economy.

Inflation is only part of

chronic shortage of labour.

the price we must pay for our

In addition, this shortage

imposes a severe constraint on the economy's capacity to

expand and create

additional wealth. And the shortage of

workers will increase as our infrastructural projects get

underway.

/47.

We