More money for Hong Kong to splash out with ‘considerably high’ HK$57.2 billion budget surplus, finance chief writes

In blog post, Paul Chan says Basic Law provision on public finance should not be viewed too rigidly

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Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan is to deliver the budget on February 28. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 6:30pm, 7 Jan 2018Updated: 4:12pm, 21 Feb 2018

Hong Kong’s finance chief has hinted he would keep splashing money in his upcoming budget in light of a “considerably high” surplus despite the provision in the Basic Law requiring the city to keep the budget commensurate with its GDP growth rate.

Paul Chan Mo-po said the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, should not be viewed too rigidly and that he would seek to invest in the future instead of giving out “sweeteners” that could only “win plaudits in the short term”.

The government has been criticised in the past for not sharing the city’s wealth on a long-term basis. Photo: AFP

In a post on his official blog on Sunday, the financial secretary wrote that he expected the surplus for the current financial year to be “considerably high” owing mainly to unexpected land revenue.

He said that in the first eight months of the financial year ending November 30, 2017, the city recorded a cumulative year-to-date surplus of HK$57.2 billion (US$7.3 billion). That compared with the original estimate of HK$16.3 billion for the 2017-18 year.

Hong Kong finance chief ‘to boost land supply’ in next budget

Chan, who is consulting the public for the 2018-19 budget, said “how to make the best use of the surplus would be a most challenging task”.