Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's maiden budget has turned him into a star overnight and given him the highest popularity rating of any senior official.
A survey on Wednesday night found his popularity rating had shot up 12 points to 67.9 per cent, surpassing the 63.3 scored earlier this week by his boss, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
It is also higher than ratings early this month for Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung (62.2) and Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen (62.7).
The financial secretary's approval rating also jumped - by 23 points to 58 per cent.
The public satisfaction rate with his budget was 68 per cent - a better result than all four budgets delivered by Mr Tang, his predecessor, and just behind the 70 per cent rating for Donald Tsang's budget in 2000.
The University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme interviewed 1,077 people. Poll director Robert Chung Ting-yiu said people's reaction to Mr Tsang's budget - a HK$125 billion package of tax cuts, subsidies, and investment - was positive.
