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Following is the transcript of the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, speaking to the press after attending a radio programme this morning (July 7):
Reporter: IMF (International Monetary Fund) said they will lower its growth economic forecast, how likely do you think you will do the same?
Financial Secretary: IMF has the luxury of changing its forecast every month. I have no doubt they would do that soon. That obviously would have an impact on Hong Kong because we are a small and externally-oriented economy. We rely a great deal on our traditional markets in Europe and America. Meanwhile, countries in Asia have also been slowing down, so we are now looking out, we keep that in mind. In August, I will make an assessment whether we need to adjust our forecast, thank you very much.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Saturday, July 7, 2012
Issued at HKT 11:27
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