Financial Results for the Six Months Ended September 30

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Melissa Ng / David Hsieh at 212-752-3320
Daniel McAtee at 202-238-6360
Wing Yan Tong at 415-835-9315

October 30, 2009 - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced today its financial results for the six months ended September 30, 2009.

Expenditure for the period April to September 2009 amounted to HK$137.2 billion (US$17.58 billion) and revenue HK$72.4 billion (US$9.28 billion), resulting in a deficit of HK$64.8 billion (US$8.3 billion).

A government spokesman said that the deficit for the period was mainly because some major types of revenue including salaries tax and profits tax were mostly received towards the end of a financial year.

The fiscal reserves stood at HK$429.6 billion (US$55.07 billion) as at September 30, 2009.