28-01-83
10.25
FROM.
IF 1
H.M.TREABURY
ID.
0712706329
9.
10.
permitted to work under the special labour Importation scheme for the new airport and related projects will be raised from 2,000 to 5,500. This is in addition to the overall ceiling of 25,000 for the general labour importation scheme to alleviate shortages in particular skills.
In the residential property market, the anti- speculative measures, including the tightening of the banks' criteria for providing mortgage finance, have already had some effect. Speculation has cooled off in the second half of 1992 and apartment prices are currently under downward pressure in a relatively quiet market. In the medium and longer term the authorities will work to ensure an adequate supply of land through forward planning and programming and through maintaining flexibility with regard to restrictions on usage and the public disposal of land.
Other measures recently taken to combat inflation include promoting increased efficiency in the public service; promoting greater competition in the private sector; and investing substantially in education and training so as to raise labour productivity in the longer term.
Fiscal policy
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The Hong Kong authorities remain committed to a medium term budget strategy of keeping the growth of public expenditure below the trend growth of GDP. It is true that the financial projections indicate a deterioration in the fiscal position over the next few years. However, a number of factors need to be taken into account when considering these projections. In Hong Kong's system where expenditure is rigorously controlled, there is an in-built bias towards underspending. Furthermore, revenue projections are based on the trend growth rate of the economy. times of high economic growth, revenue can be expacted to exceed the levels assumed in the projections. As a result, the shift in the fiscal position can be expected to be less than the projections suggest.
At
This main cause of the shift in the fiscal position has, correctly, been identified by staff as relating to the investment in the new airport and related projects. The main
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