Budget Speech by the Financial Secretary (10)

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Public Finance

251. During the pandemic, several rounds of large-scale counter-cyclical measures were launched to support enterprises and safeguard jobs. These measures, though successful in stabilising the economy and protecting people’s livelihood, have led to fiscal deficits in the past few years. The Budget last year introduced a reinforced fiscal consolidation programme, aiming at achieving fiscal balance through strictly containing the growth of government expenditure, suitably increasing revenue and consolidating the Government’s financial resources. In addition, the scale of bond issuance would be enlarged. Last year, we set the target of attaining surpluses in the Operating Account from 2026-27 onwards and the Consolidated Account in 2028-29 respectively.