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$1,274.5 billion on 31 July 2007.

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 July 2007 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,274.5 billion, were HK$17.6 billion higher than at the end of June 2007. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$5.2 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$12.4 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to valuation gains on foreign currency investments and interest and dividend from foreign currency assets. These increases were partly offset by redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness. The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to valuation gains of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and an increase in Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued but not yet settled, which were partly offset by fiscal drawdowns.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of July 2007 was HK$296.9 billion, a decrease of HK$1.6 billion, or 0.5%, from the end of June 2007. The decline was due mainly to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness which was partly offset by an increase in the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$1.5 billion, or 0.4%, to HK$333.6 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to the interest from investments and revaluation gains, which were partly offset by the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base. Reflecting this, the backing ratio rose from 111.28% at the end of June 2007 to 112.39% at the end of July 2007.

Attachment
Annex 1 : Abridged Balance Sheet of the Exchange Fund
Annex 2 : Currency Board Account

For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 August 2007

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 August 2007, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: