THE deficit budget engineered by Financial Secretary Hamish Macleod for this year is expected to become an embarrassing surplus, thanks to the booming stock and property markets.
Government statistics show that in the first seven months of the financial year, stamp duty collected on stock and property transactions has already topped $9.45 billion, only $220 million less than the total amount Mr Macleod projected for the whole year.
If the healthy trend continues, instead of finishing with the $3.36 billion deficit Mr Macleod forecast in March, Hong Kong will end in the black, as it has since 1985.
Secretary for the Treasury, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, conceded that a surplus was now possible, but warned that even if that happened, there should not be any departure from the Government's prudent fiscal policy of keeping public expenditure in line with economic growth.
At present, the Government allows public spending to grow by five per cent a year in real terms, in line with medium-range forecasts, but keeping it below 20 per cent of gross domestic product.
Legislators had said from the outset that Mr Macleod's deficit scenario was off the mark, particularly since the amount he suggested was so low compared with the size of the overall budget.
