New relief measures welcome 500,000 Hong Kong people to collect refund cheque in September

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Mr Tsang Chun-wah, said the financial tsunami, coupled with influenza A, would inevitably aggravate the public's worries, but he believed that the current situation should have been the worst period and expected a slight growth in the economy next year. Mr Tsang stressed that the new round of rescue measures had already responded to the most pressing needs of the public and made the public feel directly about the benefits of the measures, and that they could help the public through this year's economic difficulties.　　He expects 500,000 members of the public to receive a refund cheque in September. Speaking at a radio programme 30th, Mr Tsang said that the newly launched $16.8 billion package of relief measures had been welcomed by the public to benefit the grassroots and help enterprises to tide over difficulties and maintain employment.　　He stressed that the implementation of the enhanced relief measures was not for applause or political consideration, but to see that the economic situation in the first quarter of Hong Kong was rather poor and that it was necessary to expeditiously introduce measures which would benefit the public immediately, hoping that members of the Legislative Council would be supported in order to enable low-income earners to receive support Mr Tsang pointed out that the outbreak of influenza A combined with the financial turmoil would inevitably aggravate the public's worries about the economic outlook, but he believed that the current situation should have been the worst of times. He expected the Hong Kong economy to shrink in the second half of the year, and if there were no major changes, there would be a slight rise in the next.　　He pointed out that the new "basket" of relief measures should be sufficient to meet the needs of this year, and the Government would continue to monitor the market development, and if the situation turned bad, it would not preclude the introduction of the relief measures, and he hoped that the economy would grow slightly next year. Mr Tsang does not mind that the new relief measures have been described as "rehash", and that it is a good thing for the guests to be satisfied as long as the food is fried well.　　Taking the Asian financial turmoil in 1998 as an example, he lost more than 100,000 jobs in the 6 months, and the loss of more than 40,000 jobs in the financial tsunami has reflected a certain stabilizing effect of the SAR government in the employment protection measures. In respect of salaries tax, the SAR government has increased the tax rebate from $6000 to $8000, so that over 800,000 people do not have to pay tax, of which 500,000 are eligible for a full 8000 refund, and Mr Tsang expects to receive a refund cheque in September.　　Since the financial tsunami, the SAR government has launched a special measure of over $70 billion, which has boosted its GDP by 1.5% this year and, with the newly announced measures, has boosted its contribution to about 2%. On the recent rise to 18,000, Mr Tsang reminded investors to be cautious because Hong Kong's stock market was still very volatile: "We have to be careful about how we invest, because the relationship between the stock market and the real economy is not obvious, and for small investors, they should be cautious about investing in the stock market." ”