23-41  Public Expenditure by Policy Area Group
	(HKD 100 million)
Item	2003/2004	2004/2005	2005/2006	2006/2007	2007/2008
Community and External Affairs	80.97*	77.71*	78.01*	80.33*	83.04
Economic	137.94*	126.56*	125.30*	127.16*	140.20
Education	572.91*	544.51*	542.66*	519.35*	550.66
Environment and Food	108.92*	101.94*	96.81*	101.88*	121.15
Health	342.01	321.99	316.16	321.27*	335.33
Housing	248.34*	179.61*	154.04*	146.71*	150.14
Infrastructure	297.03*	309.23*	269.68*	235.45*	229.05
Security	266.16	255.41	247.92	251.22*	281.20
Social Welfare	333.33	332.85	332.62	335.40*	348.96
Support	323.37*	321.56*	286.62*	298.67*	318.85
Total	2710.98	2571.37	2449.82	2417.44*	2558.58
Notes : Figures for 2006/2007 are revised estimate.
Expenditure figures for 2006/2007 and before have been adjusted to align with the cost-neutral transfers between policy area groups
adopted in the 2008/2009 estimate.
Public expenditure comprises government expenditure, that is all expenditure charged to the General Revenue Account and financed
by the Government's statutory funds (excluding Capital Investment Fund), and expenditure by the Trading Funds and the Housing
Authority. Expenditures by those organisations (including statutory organisations) such as the Airport Authority, the MTR
Corporation Ltd and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, in which the Government has only an equity position, are not
included.  Similarly, advances and equity investments from the Capital Investment Fund are excluded as they do not reflect the
actual consumption of resources by the Government.