Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Friday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$960.7 billion as at 28 February 2003.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released on a monthly basis together with the Currency Board Account.

At the end of February 2003, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$960.7 billion, were HK$14.9 billion lower than at the end of January 2003. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased, by HK$14.2 billion and HK$0.7 billion respectively.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness and the sale of foreign currencies for Hong Kong dollars. The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to fiscal drawdowns and a decrease in bank borrowings which were partly offset by the purchase of Hong Kong dollars from foreign currencies.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of February 2003 was HK$251.9 billion, a decrease of HK$13.4 billion, or 5.1%, from the end of January 2003. The decrease was mainly due to a drop in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$13.3 billion as the seasonal demand for cash unwound after the Lunar New Year.

The backing assets decreased by HK$13.2 billion, or 4.5%, from HK$295.1 billion to HK$281.9 billion. The decline was mainly driven by the corresponding decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base. At the end of February 2003, the backing ratio stood at 111.93%, against 111.24% at the end of January.

Attachment

Annex 1 : Abridged Balance Sheet of the Exchange Fund
Annex 2 : Currency Board Account

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 March 2003

At present, four press releases relating to the Exchange Fund's data are issued by the HKMA each month. Three of these releases are issued to disseminate monetary data in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). The fourth press release, on the Exchange Fund's Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account, is made in accordance with the HKMA's policy of maintaining a high level of transparency. For the month of March 2003, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: