Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures Released

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Tuesday) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$118.5 billion at the end of August 2004 (end-July 2004: US$118.3 billion) (Table 1).

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of August 2004 also stood at US$118.5 billion (end-July 2004: US$118.3 billion).

In terms of foreign currency reserves ranking, Hong Kong is the world's fifth largest holder of foreign currency reserves, after Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea (Table 2).

The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$118.5 billion represent over six times the currency in circulation or about 45% of Hong Kong dollar M3.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
7 September 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 September 2004, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

Table 1

Foreign Currency Reserve Assets of Hong Kong

(US$ billion)

Figures for the end of 1995 and 1996 do not include Land Fund figures. The Land Fund was established on 1 July 1997 and its foreign currency reserve assets were included thereafter in the above compilation. The assets of the Land Fund were merged into the Exchange Fund in November 1998.

* The latest monthly figures are preliminary and subject to change.

Table 2

Official Reserves Ranking

Sources : HKMA, Reuters, websites of International Monetary Fund, People's Bank of China