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HK's 2001 Financial Deficit to Stand at 1 billion USD
Hong Kong's Expenditure for the year ended March 31, 2001 amounted to 232.8 billion HK dollars (29.8 billion US dollars) and revenue to 225 billion HK dollars (28.8 billion US dollars), resulting in a deficit of 7.8 billion HK dollars (1 billion US dollars).
The figure was made public Saturday when the government announced the provisional financial results for the fiscal year.
The fiscal reserves stood at 430.3 billion HK dollars (55.2 billion US dollars), a decrease of 13.9 billion HK dollars (1.8 billion US dollars) compared with the balance of 444.2 billion HK dollars (56.9 billion US dollars) at March 31, 2000.
This decrease comprised the deficit of 7.8 billion HK dollars for the year ended March 31, 2001, and a provision of 6.1 billion HK dollars (782 million U.S. dollars) for the fall in the market value of the fiscal reserves invested with the Exchange Fund during the period from January 1, 2001 to March 31, 2001.
A government spokesman said that the deficit of 7.8 billion HK dollars represented an improvement of 3.6 billion HK dollars (461 million US dollars) over the revised deficit of 11.4 billion HK dollars as announced in the Financial Secretary's 2001-02 Budget Speech.
Revenue was 2.2 billion HK dollars (282 million US dollars) better than expected, largely as a result of additional Profits Tax receipts, and expenditure was 1.4 billion HK dollars (179 million US dollars) lower than forecast.
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