(Press Release)

Hong Kong Policy Research Institute Ltd. (HKPRI) carried out the survey on the economic confidence indices of Hong Kong in the evenings of 17^th and 18^th April 2000.

The survey results indicate that most of the confidence indices declined, especially for the confidence indices on "Stock Market", "Property Market", and "Economic Prospect of Hong Kong" (please refer to the table below).  This may be caused by the recent sharp correction of Hong Kong Stock Market especially for those information technology stocks.  Under the influence of the volatile stock market, the respondents may perceive the economic prospect as more uncertain.  However the confidence index on "Family Financial Well Being" was recorded with slight improvement.  This index has been in gradual upward trend since last year, and its momentum is not affected by the general decline of other indices in this survey (please refer to the attached graph).

The Economic Confidence Indices Survey is a telephone survey, and the respondents are the public of 18-64 years old.  The distribution of sample age groups is based on the distribution of age groups of Hong Kong population.  The total number of respondents of the survey in April is 831.