Hong Kong posts $7.49 billion fiscal surplus for fiscal year 2006-07

Hong Kong posted a provisional HK$58.6 billion (US $7.49 billion) consolidated fiscal surplus for the financial year ending March 2007, the government said on Monday. Financial Secretary Henry Tang, in his budget speech in February, forecast a HK$55.1 billion provisional fiscal surplus for the financial year through March 2007.
Revenues soared as the economy last year expanded 6.8 percent, ranking it as one of Asia's best performers outside China and India. The surplus, which was well above an initial government forecast made early in the financial year of HK$5.6 billion, marks a third straight year that public finances have been in the black, reversing hefty deficits recorded in the years after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.
The government's investment income - which unlike other revenue is calculated on a calendar year basis - nearly tripled in 2006 to HK$28.9 billion and stamp duty is expected to be much higher in 2006/07 as turnover on the stock market surged.
In April-March, government revenue totalled HK$287.99 billion, while expenditures amounted to HK$229.39 billion, the government said. For March alone, the government recorded a HK$21.23 billion surplus. Fiscal reserves stood at HK$369.27 billion at the end of March, up from HK$348 billion at the end of February.