Following is the transcript of a media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after today's Executive Council meeting :

Question : ...Will you consider the market crisis.....?>

Chief Executive: Well, I think the market still goes up and down. What has happened this morning was a reaction of what happened around the world, particularly in New York and from our side we don't see any panic. The fundamentals here are very good, economy is going well in Hong Kong and the economy in China is going very well. So, we see this as in the beginning period was because the interest rate has gone up because we were defending the linked exchange rate. The latest round is because of what happened overseas. But our fundamentals are strong so that is the most important thing.........

Question: Any discussion of ...........?

Chief Executive: The peg of the linked exchange rate is staying, there was no discussion on that subject because that is not a subject for discussion. It's a decision made a very strong determination on our side.

Question: You see the economy is strong, what about the higher interest rate ........ .are you concerned about that?

Chief Executive: Well, you know the interest rate was raised when we were defending the linked exchange rate. But we believe the interest rate is slowly but surely coming to normal.