Hong Kong Monetary Authority - Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data

Press Releases

14 Feb 2006

Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (Tuesday) key data on the balance sheet of the Exchange Fund at the end of January 2006, reporting an increase of HK$33.5 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$918.4 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$303.8 billion.

Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$81.7 billion.

Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$1.5 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:
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
14 February 2006

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 February 2006, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

7 February (Issued)	SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
14 February	SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
24 February	Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
28 February	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 January 2005	305,786	0	65,249	907,743	1,382
28 February 2005	296,192	0	64,428	902,425	1,910
31 March 2005	286,496	0	76,790	878,677	1,431
30 April 2005	286,597	0	72,940	883,019	946
31 May 2005	280,600	0	76,386	876,818	12,572
30 June 2005	281,399	0	79,673	869,178	5,953
31 July 2005	279,322	0	73,816	874,333	4,626
31 August 2005	277,618	0	85,292	866,513	1,379
30 September 2005	280,684	0	74,547	879,004	1,487
31 October 2005	278,179	0	81,259	864,016	2,308
30 November 2005	276,859	0	79,483	877,135	1,464
31 December 2005	283,975	0	79,525	884,927	1,225
31 January 2006	303,778	0	81,744	918,446	1,487

(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 are bank deposits.

(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 February 2006

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