Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures Released

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Monday) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$113.4 billion at the end of September 2001 (end-August 2001: US$113.7 billion) (Table 1).

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of September 2001 also stood at US$113.4 billion (end-August 2001: US$113.7 billion).

In terms of foreign currency reserves ranking, Hong Kong is now the world's fourth largest holder of foreign currency reserves, after Japan, Mainland China and Taiwan (Table 2).

The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$113.4 billion represent about eight times the currency in circulation or 44% of Hong Kong dollar M3, one of the highest ratios in the world.

Release calendar

The release calendar of foreign currency assets for 2002 is announced below:

For further enquiries, please contact:

Caitlin Wong, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
8 October 2001

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 October 2001, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

Table 1

Foreign Currency Reserve Assets of Hong Kong
(US$ billion)

                Excluding                   Including
                Unsettled     Unsettled     Unsettled
                FX Contracts  FX Contracts  FX Contracts

Dec 95          55.4          1.8            57.2
Dec 96          63.8          5.7            69.6
Dec 97          92.8          0.4            93.2
Dec 98          89.6          -              89.6
Dec 99          96.3          -              96.3

Jan 00          94.3          (0.1)          94.2
Feb 00          93.1          -              93.1
Mar 00          93.8          0.1            93.9
Apr 00          93.9          0.3            94.2
May 00          95.2          0.2            95.4
Jun 00          97.1          -              97.1
Jul 00          98.9          -              98.9
Aug 00          100.4         (0.3)          100.1
Sep 00          101.5         0.2            101.7
Oct 00          102.7         -              102.7
Nov 00          104.2         -              104.2
Dec 00          107.5         -              107.5

Jan 01          111.5         -              111.5
Feb 01          114.3         -              114.3
Mar 01          114.6         -              114.6
Apr 01          115.1         -              115.1
May 01          114.7         -              114.7
Jun 01          114.1         -              114.1
Jul 01          114.6         -              114.6
Aug 01          113.7         -              113.7
Sep 01          113.4         -              113.4

Figures for the end of 1995 and 1996 do not include Land Fund figures. The Land Fund was established on 1 July 1997 and its foreign currency reserve assets were included thereafter in the above compilation. The assets of the Land Fund were merged into the Exchange Fund in November 1998.

Table 2

Foreign Currency Reserves Ranking

Sources : HKMA, Reuters, websites of International Monetary Fund