Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

Press Releases

28 May 2004

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$1,046.2 billion at 30 April 2004.

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 April 2004 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,046.2 billion, were HK$16.8 billion lower than at the end of March 2004. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased, by HK$13.6 billion and HK$3.2 billion respectively.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to valuation losses on foreign currency investments which was partly offset by an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness and income from foreign currency assets. The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to valuation losses in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and fiscal drawdowns, which were partly offset by an increase in bank borrowings.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of April 2004 was HK$323.5 billion, an increase of HK$1.2 billion, or 0.4%, from the end of March 2004. The rise was mainly due to an increase of HK$2.3 billion in Certificates of Indebtedness which was partly offset by a decrease of HK$1.3 billion in the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$2.1 billion, or 0.6%, to HK$355.9 billion. The increase was mainly driven by the corresponding increase in Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base. Reflecting this, the backing ratio increased from 109.76% at the end of March to 110.01% at the end of April.

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
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 May 2004

 

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 May 2004, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

 

7 May
(Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
14 May
(Issued)
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
28 May Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
31 May SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
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Last revision date : 28 May 2004