Last December we thought that GDP growth in calendar 2003 would be about 3½ per cent. We now know that it came in at 3.9 per cent, with the second half of the year being a lot stronger than the first half, but with growth slipping to 3.2 per cent in the four quarters to March 2004.
Today, with concerted efforts from authorities in the three places, the promulgation of implementation details for the pilot scheme applicable to the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao marks the formal launch of the crossboundary WMC pilot scheme.