Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Thursday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$2,235.4 billion on 30 November 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 November 2009 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$2,235.4 billion, were HK$197.1 billion higher than at the end of October 2009. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$196.3 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$0.8 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to purchases of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars, an increase in unsettled purchases of securities and valuation gains on foreign currency investments. The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to valuation gains on Hong Kong equities.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of November 2009 was HK$996.1 billion, an increase of HK$104.7 billion, or 11.7%, from the end of October 2009. The rise in the Monetary Base was due mainly to an inflow of funds into the Hong Kong dollar.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$131.5 billion, or 14.0%, to HK$1,069.4 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to the rise in the Monetary Base, revaluation gains and interest from investments, together with the transfer of assets from the Investment Portfolio to the Backing Portfolio in accordance with the arrangement approved by the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee. Reflecting this, the backing ratio increased from 105.21% at the end of October 2009 to 107.36% at the end of November 2009.

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

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

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 December 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 December 2009, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: