Financial Secretary Paul Chan revealed that in 2025-26, the Government’s Operating Account will return to a surplus ahead of schedule and is expected to register a surplus throughout the period from 2026-27 to 2030-2031.

Mr Chan observed that overall, the Government’s public finances have seen significant improvement.

Delivering the 2026-27 Budget Speech today, Mr Chan noted that the Budget last year introduced a reinforced fiscal consolidation programme with the aim of achieving fiscal balance.

Over the past year, on top of its full commitment to implementing the programme, the Government also saw an increase in revenue from stamp duties and profits tax, by nearly $50 billion in total, compared to the original estimate.

As a result, in 2025-26, the Operating Account will return to a surplus ahead of schedule, while the Consolidated Account will be broadly balanced after taking into account the net proceeds from bond issuance.

In the medium term, Mr Chan said the Capital Account will nevertheless still record a deficit annually, mainly due to a high level of capital works expenditure. 

As infrastructure projects are an investment in Hong Kong’s future, the Government will meet the financing needs by suitably increasing bond issuance. 

Fiscal consolidation

The Financial Secretary said the Government will follow through with the fiscal consolidation programme by strictly containing the growth of operating expenditure.

Specifically, it will take forward the Productivity Enhancement Programme as planned, to cut the recurrent expenditure by 2% in both 2026-27 and 2027-28. Such moves will deliver further savings of about $7.8 billion and $15.6 billion respectively over 2025-26.

The plan will be launched on the premise that the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, Social Security Allowance and statutory expenditures will not be affected, Mr Chan emphasised.

The civil service establishment will be reduced by 2% in each of the coming two financial years to an estimated level of about 188,000 posts by April 1. As a result, a cumulative total of over 10,000 posts will be deleted within the current-term Government.

Mr Chan said the Government will uphold the “affordable users pay” principle in raising revenue.

The rates of stamp duty on residential property transactions valued above $100 million will be raised from 4.25% to 6.5%, affecting about 0.3% of residential property transactions. 

It is estimated that revenue will increase by about $1 billion per year. The measure will take retrospective effect from tomorrow upon passage of the amendment bill by the Legislative Council.

The Government will also optimise the use of its financial resources. Funds established outside its accounts will be consolidated with a view to bringing back about $15.8 billion to the Government’s accounts in 2026-27.

To optimise the use of the Bond Fund’s surplus, the Government will introduce a resolution to LegCo to enable the transfer of the accumulated fund surplus to the Consolidated Account in 2026-27.

In addition, Mr Chan proposed transferring $75 billion in each of the coming two financial years, totalling $150 billion, from the Exchange Fund to the Capital Works Reserve Fund. The $150 billion in transfer will support the Northern Metropolis and other infrastructure projects.

Bond issuance

The Government’s capital works expenditure is estimated to be about $128 billion for 2026-27. As the Government will accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis and other economy and livelihood related works projects, it plans to raise the total borrowing ceiling of the green bonds and infrastructure bonds programmes, from $700 billion announced last year to $900 billion. 

During the Medium Range Forecast period, the ratio of government debt to Gross Domestic Product will rise from 14.4% to 19.9%, which, Mr Chan said, is a highly prudent level and well below that of most advanced economies.

Proceeds from bond issuance will be used to invest in infrastructure only, but not for government recurrent expenditure, he emphasised.