(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-24 20:39

MACAO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- In a bid to ease inflationary pressures on local residents, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government recently launched a special subsidy program which will cost it over 800 million patacas (around 1 million US dollars), but public opinions showed that the government still need to do more to help the socially disadvantaged through the lean periods of high inflation.

Starting from April 2008 to March of next year, electricity fee and income subsidies will be granted respectively to some 180,000 households in the city, and about 16,000 local full-time employees who, aged over 40, were paid less than 4,000 patacas (500 US dollars) a month, according to the program, which was firstly revealed by the SAR government on March 12.

The 150-pataca (19 US dollars) monthly electricity fee subsidy will in effect exempt 55, 000 households, or 30 percent of the total, whose monthly electricity bills amounted to less than 150 patacas, from paying electricity charges for the period, said Francis Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance of the SAR government.

Meanwhile, the income subsidies were aimed to ensure that the beneficiary could earn at least 4,000 patacas a month, or about half of the officially measured median monthly employment earnings, which stood at 7,926 patacas in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the secretary.

Macao's inflation rate as measured by the composite CPI ( Consumer Price Index) for February 2008 rose by 9.47 percent year- on-year, according to the SAR's Statistics and Census Bureau.

In an earlier circumstance, Anselmo Teng, president of the Macao Monetary Authority, (AMCM) noted that the fast appreciation of RMB has increased Macao's inflationary pressures, which has affected the prices of food imported from the Chinese mainland. AMCM has predicted in its news brief that Macao's inflation rate may hit 10 percent this year.

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