Hong Kong announces new fiscal year budget, integrates finance to promote high-quality development
2024-03-01
On the 28th, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Chan Mo po, announced the financial budget for the fiscal year 2024/2025. Hong Kong will strengthen its confidence, adopt a fiscal integration strategy, seize opportunities, and promote high-quality development in the new year. Chen Maobo stated that public finance needs to enter a consolidation phase after the epidemic. After comprehensive consideration, he will adopt a fiscal integration strategy to gradually narrow the fiscal deficit and restore balance between revenue and expenditure. He introduced that the steady development of the country has provided solid support for Hong Kong. Hong Kong's institutional advantages of "one country, two systems" and highly internationalized characteristics will attract more talents, funds, and enterprises to gather. He is full of confidence in the development of Hong Kong. The theme of this fiscal budget is to strengthen confidence, seize opportunities, and promote high-quality development. The budget shows that the Hong Kong economy is expected to further expand in 2024, with real growth expected to range from 2.5% to 3.5% for the whole year, and basic inflation rates and overall inflation rates expected to be 1.7% and 2.4%, respectively. In the medium term, Hong Kong's economy will continue to develop sustainably and steadily. Chen Maobo stated that it is expected that interest rates in the United States and the eurozone will gradually decline in the coming years, and global demand should gradually recover accordingly. More importantly, the country's efforts to promote high-quality development will bring vast development space to Hong Kong. Chen Maobo predicts that the Hong Kong economy will experience an average annual real growth rate of 3.2% from 2025 to 2028, with a basic inflation rate expected to be an average of 2.5% per year. He stated that the SAR government's efforts in expanding economic capacity, enhancing competitiveness, and cultivating new growth points in recent years have also enabled Hong Kong to seize opportunities and enhance its medium - and long-term growth momentum when the global economic situation improves. The budget proposal mentions multiple targeted measures to accelerate economic recovery. The SAR government will comprehensively build the Hong Kong brand, promote the hosting of grand events and themed annual conferences in different fields by better utilizing various social and natural resources, and combine the opportunities of industrial development to create Hong Kong as the preferred destination for business and tourism. In the first half of this year, there will be over 80 grand events with different themes and types. The SAR government has also established a grand event coordination group, which will be more proactive in the future to strive for more grand events to be held in Hong Kong. Promoting high-quality development helps stimulate sustained economic innovation and growth. For this reason, the budget proposal mentions a series of measures to promote the digital economy and green development, and help Hong Kong improve the international competitiveness of the eight centers. Specific measures include digital finance, the third generation Internet, artificial intelligence, offshore RMB business hub, etc. Chen Maobo said, "As long as Hong Kong makes good use of its unique advantages under the 'One Country, Two Systems' policy, steadily moves forward, actively integrates into the overall development of the country, aligns with the national development strategy, and continues to play an important node in the domestic and international dual circulation, the prospects are very bright." Hong Kong's 2024/2025 fiscal budget predicts a comprehensive deficit of HKD 101.6 billion for 2023/2024. The fiscal reserve is expected to be HKD 733.2 billion as of March 31, 2024. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Li Ka chao, issued a statement on the budget, stating that the budget proposes a series of practical measures to strengthen confidence, respond to the expectations of citizens and businesses, consolidate the momentum of recovery, and also focus on the long-term
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：Xinhua
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