Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

Press Releases

29 Apr 2005

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$1,056.1 billion at 31 March 2005.

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

At the end of March 2005 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,056.1 billion, were HK$18.0 billion lower than at the end of February 2005. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased, by HK$14.0 billion and HK$4.0 billion respectively.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness, sales of foreign currencies for Hong Kong dollars and valuation losses on foreign currency investments, which were partly offset by income from foreign currency assets.

The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to a decrease in the balance of the banking system, valuation losses in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and fiscal drawdowns. These decreases were partly offset by an increase in bank borrowings and the purchase of Hong Kong dollars from foreign currencies.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of March 2005 was HK$286.5 billion, a decrease of HK$9.7 billion, or 3.3%, from the end of February 2005. The decrease was mainly due to decreases in the Aggregate Balance and Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Backing Assets decreased by HK$15.6 billion, or 4.7%, to HK$316.0 billion. The decrease was mainly attributable to the transfer of assets out of the Backing Portfolio to the Investment Portfolio in accordance with the arrangement approved by the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee together with the decreases in the Aggregate Balance and Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base. As a result, the backing ratio decreased from 111.96% at the end of February 2005 to 110.30% at the end of March 2005.

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
H. F. Wong, Resource Coordinator (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 April 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 April 2005, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

7 April
(Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
14 April
(Issued)
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
29 April Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
29 April SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
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Last revision date : 29 April 2005