Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, talks to reporters.
The Government is financially stable and sees no need to launch more measures to control expenditure. This assurance was given by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, who told reporters after the plenary session of the Standing Council on Social Concerted Action on 11 September. Mr Leong said the Government experienced no financial difficulty, as there were more than 10 billion patacas of accumulated reserves according to the amended budget for the fiscal year 2015, which was submitted to the Legislative Assembly in March. The budget requires the administration to launch stricter financial measures when gaming revenue fell to a monthly average of 20 billion pactacs or less. He said Macao might experience short-term uncertainty due to external financial environment, and stressed that the Government would closely monitor the situation from September to December and would consider introducing measures to tighten the use of public funds only when there was no surplus generated. Since 1 September, the Government launched retrenchment measures to control public expenditure, including a plan involving 1.4 billion patacas cost-cutting in government departments. But the measures will not affect government spending on social welfare, the Wealth Partaking scheme, and the Investment and Development Expenditure Scheme.