Financial Results for First Nine Months of 2008-2009 Financial Year

For more information, please contact:
Melissa Ng /David Hsieh at 212-752-3320
Daniel McAtee at 202-238-6360
Wing Yan Tong at 415-835-9315

January 30, 2009 - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government had expenditure of HK$205.4 billion (US$26.33 billion) and revenue of HK$236.3 billion (US$30.29 billion) for the period April – December 2008, resulting in a surplus of HK$30.9 billion (US$3.96 billion).

A surplus of HK$40.3 billion (US$5.16 billion) was recorded in December.

A government spokesman said that the surplus in December was mainly due to the receipts of salaries tax, profits tax and investment income on fiscal reserves of HK$46.4 billion (US$5.94 billion) from the Exchange Fund. Major one-off expenditure including injection to Mandatory Provident Funds accounts and the Research Endowment Fund had not been reflected in the December figures.

The spokesman added that despite the larger number of holdover cases, revenue from salaries tax and profits tax had been better than expected. The revised estimates for the current financial year will be published along with the 2009-10 Budget on February 25.

The territory’s fiscal reserves stood at HK$523.8 billion (US$67.15 billion) as at December 31, 2008.