Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Tuesday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,760.1 billion on 31 May 2009.

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 May 2009 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,760.1 billion, were HK$114.7 billion higher than at the end of April 2009. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$98.1 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$16.6 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to purchases of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars and valuation gains on foreign currency investments. The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to an increase in the balance of the banking system and valuation gains on Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund. These increases were partly offset by sales of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of May 2009 was HK$690.3 billion, an increase of HK$71.5 billion, or 11.5%, from the end of April 2009. The rise was due mainly to an increase in the Aggregate Balance, which was partly offset by a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$71.0 billion, or 10.7%, to HK$733.9 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to an increase in the Aggregate Balance and interest from investments. These increases were partly offset by the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base and revaluation losses. Reflecting this, the backing ratio declined from 107.13% at the end of April 2009 to 106.32% at the end of May 2009.

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

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 June 2009

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 June 2009, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: