HKMA Quarterly Bulletin (September 2006 Issue)

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (Thursday) published the September 2006 issue of its Quarterly Bulletin.

This Bulletin contains three feature articles:

• Hong Kong's business cycle synchronisation with Mainland China and the US - showing that, despite increasing integration between the Hong Kong and Mainland economies, co-movements of business cycles between the two are mainly explained by developments in the US affecting both.

• The validation of internal rating systems for capital adequacy purposes - describing the main features of the validation standards the HKMA will use to determine whether authorized institutions are eligible to use their internal ratings systems to calculate the supervisory capital requirements for credit risk.

• Forecasting the non-rental component of Hong Kong's CCPI inflation - an indicator approach - concluding that the selected indicator models can improve the accuracy of inflation forecasts for Hong Kong.

The Bulletin also includes a speech entitled "The debt market of Hong Kong - what can we offer to investors?" given by YK Choi, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, at the third Annual Asia Pacific Bond Congress on 13 June 2006. The speech gave an overview of Hong Kong's debt market and its attractions.

The Quarterly Bulletin may be ordered from the HKMA at $100 per copy. The Bulletin may also be bought at the HKMA Information Centre on 55th Floor, Two International Finance Centre. The full text of the Bulletin (http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/public/qb_index.htm) is available on the HKMA website.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
21 September 2006