The government yesterday declared a HK$59.5 billion budget surplus for the first nine months of this financial year, far exceeding last February's full-year budget prediction of a HK$3.9 billion surplus.
The news came a day before Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's final budget speech today.
Tsang's record in underestimating the government's fiscal performance is likely to continue, as Raymond So Wai-man, dean of the business school at Hang Seng Management College, said the full-year surplus could reach HK$80 billion.
For the previous fiscal year, the government had forecast a HK$25.2 billion deficit. But it turned out to be a HK$75.1 billion surplus instead.
Accounting firms such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers have predicted that this fiscal year's surplus would range between HK$53 billion and HK$60 billion.
They said higher-than-expected income from land sales and additional stamp duties from the property market and stock deals in the first half of the financial year contributed to the surplus.