Chen Maobo, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government: This year's fiscal deficit will be much lower than estimated at the beginning of the year
Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, November 7. The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Chen Maobo, said on the 7th that Hong Kong’s fiscal deficit this year is expected to be much lower than the estimate at the beginning of the year.
Chen Maobo published a blog on the 7th, saying that since the beginning of this year, Hong Kong has benefited from the boom in exports and the gradual control of the epidemic, and the economy has gradually improved. The electronic consumer vouchers distributed by the SAR government to citizens have boosted the catering, retail and service industries. This has laid room for improvement in the revenue of the SAR government.
Chen Maobo said that some high-quality land in urban areas were sold at high prices and the market's sentiment towards the property market was positive. Developers were therefore more active in paying land prices for development of land. The related income reached a record high, which exceeded HK$40 billion by the end of October.
In addition, the property market and stock market were booming in the first half of the year, and the income from property and stock stamp duty was also higher than expected.
Chen Maobo said that in the past two years, the SAR government has adopted very strong countercyclical measures to alleviate the pressure on citizens and businesses from the economic downturn.
As for the financing and use of resources in the future, we must think in many ways, including making the grassroots more beneficial, working towards a more equitable sharing of economic results, promoting "common prosperity", and promoting Hong Kong's economy to become stronger and better. Comprehensive and more solid growth momentum.