HK's deficit for 2002-03 reaches 61.7 billion HK dollars ( 2003-07-27 08:29) (Xinhua)
The deficit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government for the
financial year ending in March was 61.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.91 billion
US dollars), the government announced Friday.
Expenditure amounted to 239.2 billion HK dollars and revenue to 177.5 billion
HK dollars. On March 31, the fiscal reserves stood at 311.4 billion HK dollars.
These figures are the same as the provisional ones published on April 30.
The deficit represented an improvement of 8.3 billion HK dollars over the
revised estimated deficit of 70 billion HK dollars announced in the Budget in
March.
Revenue was 4.1 billion HK dollars more than expected, largely as a result of
additional receipts from income from investments with the Exchange Fund, profits
and salaries taxes, land premium and collections from the Housing Society under
the Home Starter Loan Scheme.
Expenditure was down 4.2 billion HK dollars due to lower-than-expected
recurrent expenditure, capital spending and a less than anticipated take-up in a
number of loan assistance schemes.
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