Hong Kong has a financial surplus of 40.3 billion HK dollars (5.2 billion U.S. dollars) in December last year, thereby bringing a net surplus of 30.9 billion HK dollars up to the end of December, 2008, official figures released Friday indicated.

Expenditure for the period April to December 2008 amounted to 205.4 billion HK dollars and revenue 236.3 billion, said a spokesman of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

The spokesman said that the surplus in December was mainly due to the receipts of salaries tax, profits tax and investment income on fiscal reserves of 46.4 billion HK dollars from the Exchange Fund.

On the other hand, major one-off expenditure including injection to Mandatory Provident Funds accounts and the Research Endowment Fund had not been reflected in the December figures, he said.

The spokesman added that despite the larger number of holdover cases, revenue from salaries tax and profits tax had been better than expected. The revised estimates for the current financial year will be published along with the 2009-10 Budget on Feb. 25.

Hong Kong's fiscal reserves stood at 523.8 billion HK dollars as at December 31, 2008. (One U.S. dollar = 7.748 HK dollars)

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2009)