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$989.5 billion as at 31 May 2003.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released on a monthly basis together with the Currency Board Account.

At the end of May 2003, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$989.5 billion, were HK$10.4 billion higher than at the end of April 2003. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets increased, by HK$4.9 billion and HK$5.5 billion respectively.

The increase in foreign currency assets was mainly due to income from foreign currency assets and valuation gains on foreign currency investments. The increase in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to purchase of Hong Kong dollars from foreign currencies and valuation gains in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund which were partly offset by fiscal drawdowns.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of May 2003 was HK$252.7 billion, an increase of HK$0.9 billion, or 0.4%, from the end of April 2003. The increase was mainly due to an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$0.3 billion and the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued of HK$0.6 billion.

The backing assets increased by HK$1.0 billion, or 0.4%, from HK$282.1 billion to HK$283.1 billion. The increase was due to the corresponding increase in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base and income from investments together with revaluation gains. At the end of May 2003, the backing ratio remained virtually unchanged at 112.04%.

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

For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 June 2003

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 2003, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: