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The Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, today (August 3, Melbourne time) arrived in Melbourne from Adelaide for the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Structural Reform which will start tomorrow morning.
On arrival in Melbourne, Mr Tsang took the opportunity to hold a bilateral meeting with the President of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Haruhiko Kuroda.
During the meeting, Mr Tsang and Mr Kuroda discussed, among other things, inflation worldwide and its impact on the region.
The Financial Secretary outlined the measures that Hong Kong took to alleviate the pressure brought about by inflation on the middle and lower income group. He noted that inflation in Hong Kong was largely a result of spiralling food prices.
The Financial Secretary said that according to studies conducted in Hong Kong, our linked exchange rate with the US dollar did not have a significant impact on inflation.
"The system has served us well in maintaining our currency stability. We have no intention of changing it. Neither is there a need to do so."
Mr Tsang said one of the best ways to ease worldwide inflation is for large food producing economies to maximise their production capacity. With an abundance of food supplies, prices would go down.
Ends/Sunday, August 3, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:10
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