4 % nationwide, with floor space newly constructed up by 22. 6 %, but completed acreage by merely 9. 1 %. 4. low - income households have difficulties in affordability. at present, nearly 10 million urban households whose per capita floor space of residential housing is below 10 square meters. among them, 4 million households receive subsistence allowances, accounting for 5. 5 % of the total number of urban households. at the same time, persistent price hike and slow development in small - and - medium - sized house lease market make it difficult for low - income households to purchase or rent houses in the market. the above problems, though limited to certain localities and created by structural imbalance, have huge impact on society due to the following reasons. first, mismatch between supply and demand is acute. from the demand side, there is a continuously strong demand as a result of higher income and faster urbanization. from the supply side, the insufficient aggregate demand is coupled with imbalanced mix of housing available and shortage of supply of small - and - medium - sized apartments. from january to october 2007, floor space completed stood at 232 million square meters, up 8. 8 % y - o - y. sold space grew by 33. 1 % yo - y to 489 million square meters, 2. 11 times of space completed, resulting in a slower growth of supply than that of demand. second, shortage of residential construction land and price hike of land, raw materials and wages push up sales prices. third, psychological expectations and housing price hike interact. urban residents prefer purchase to lease, early purchase to late purchase and big apartments to small apartments. after having purchased their own apartments, some people make speculative investment, which further pushes up housing prices. fourth, housing price hike in the international market is contagious. in recent years, the global housing market has witnessed faster price hike during a longer period time with far more wide - ranging impact than any other period of time before, not only in developed countries such as the us, uk, france, spain, italy, belgium, denmark, sweden and australia, but also in brazil, india, thailand and other developing countries. from 2001 to 2006, housing price in the us, france and the uk rose by 54. 9 %, 50 % and 85. 4 % respectively, while the single - year price hike in the three countries was 11. 32 % in 2005 for the us, 16. 25 % in 2005

places in real - time cross - border remittance, thus providing safer, more efficient and more convenient cross - border payment services for economic and trading activities and personnel exchanges between the two sides. also, we will further expand the list of participating banks offering residents of hong kong and macao agency account opening witness services. thanks to hong kong's unique advantages and its industrious residents, we believe its status as an international financial center will continue to be consolidated and strengthened. last but not least, financial leaders around the world are welcome to invest in china's financial market, sharing together with us the development opportunities. i wish this forum a complete success! thank you! 6 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches