Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data

Press Releases

14 Jan 2005

Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (Friday) key data on the balance sheet of the Exchange Fund at the end of December 2004, reporting an increase of HK$36.6 billion in the foreign assets of the Exchange Fund during the month.

Foreign assets, representing the external assets of the Exchange Fund, amounted to HK$904.9 billion.

The Monetary Base, comprising Certificates of Indebtedness, Government-issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the Aggregate Balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, amounted to HK$294.9 billion.

Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$55.9 billion.

Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$0.2 billion.

The balance sheet data of the Exchange Fund are released in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and are referred to as the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank under SDDS (Annex).

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
14 January 2005

 

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 January 2005, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

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

 

Annex

Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank
(in millions of Hong Kong dollars)

 

Monetary
Base (1)

Claims on the Hong Kong SAR Government (2)

Claims on the Private Sector in Hong Kong (3)

Foreign
Assets (4)

Foreign
Liabilities (5)

31 December 2003 292,672 0 50,841 868,636

1,037

31 January 2004 330,055 0 63,377 909,576

1,128

29 February 2004 323,139 0 51,030 912,620

1,095

31 March 2004 322,272 0 53,421 913,334

926

30 April 2004 323,503 0 57,311 899,129

495

31 May 2004 303,582 0 50,854 889,863

2,921

30 June 2004 305,310 0 52,471 893,482

2,290

31 July 2004 280,990 0 52,558 870,685

7,274

31 August 2004 277,738 0 67,613 856,748

5,880

30 September 2004 278,711 0 64,534 859,233

3,681

31 October 2004 282,628 0 48,790 882,176

866

30 November 2004 288,362 0 76,694 868,326

137

31 December 2004 294,871 0 55,858 904,904

157

(1) The Monetary Base comprises Certificates of Indebtedness (for backing the currency notes), Government-issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the Aggregate Balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued.

(2) Claims on the Hong Kong SAR Government refer to any lending to the Government.

(3) Claims on the Private Sector in Hong Kong include bank deposits and investments in debt securities issued by public sector entities in Hong Kong held by the Exchange Fund.

(4) Foreign Assets represent the external assets of the Exchange Fund and exclude foreign currency deposits placed with banks in Hong Kong.

(5) Foreign Liabilities include obligations under repurchase agreements, securities lending with cash collateral arrangements and fees payable to the Exchange Fund's external managers.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
14 January 2005

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Last revision date : 14 January 2005