24-40  Public Expenditure by Function
(HKD 100 million)
Item 1999/2000 2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004+
           
  Community and External Affairs 91.30 82.62 82.25 80.77 85.26
  Economic 122.72 124.86 137.14 137.48 155.61
  Education 503.07 514.08 522.32 547.85 577.48
  Environment and food 124.96 113.37 112.07 114.43 112.13
  Health 318.94 327.53 342.13 331.99 344.85
  Housing 458.72 426.06 320.55 240.31 278.54
  Infrastructure 229.33 228.20 248.78 245.90 263.63
  Security 258.82 267.43 275.54 270.68 274.56
  Social Welfare 276.16 281.65 300.59 322.82 339.97
  Support 310.82 309.27 352.22 342.97 359.80
  Total                         2694.84 2675.07 2693.59 2635.20 2791.83
           
Notes: Public expenditure comprises government expenditure (i.e. 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.  But not
      included is expenditure by those organisations, including statutory organisations, in which the Government has only an equity position, such as 
      the Airport Authority, the MTR Corporation Ltd and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation. 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. 
           +Revised estimate.