CHINA'S top official in Hongkong, Mr Zhou Nan, yesterday criticised the Hongkong Government's introduction of a deficit budget. He said it would drain the fiscal reserves and worsen inflation in the territory.
Speaking at the meeting of the Guangdong delegation to the National People's Congress, Mr Zhou, the director of the local branch of the New China News Agency, said: ''People should be alerted to the adverse consequences brought to the post-1997 economy by this change of the Hongkong Government's fiscal policy.'' The Financial Secretary, Mr Hamish Macleod, stressed yesterday that the 1993-94 budget would not exhaust Hongkong's reserves, saying that the forecast for 1996-97 would leave up to $78 billion in the kitty instead of the $71 billion earlier estimated.
