HKMA Quarterly Bulletin (June 2004 Issue)

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (Tuesday) published the June 2004 issue of its Quarterly Bulletin.

In this issue the HKMA publishes its second Half-Yearly Monetary and Financial Stability Report. The report provides a detailed analysis of external and domestic influences on Hong Kong's monetary and financial systems. It concludes that conditions for Hong Kong are generally favourable in the first half of 2004.

This issue of the Quarterly Bulletin also contains feature articles on:

• Sources of unemployment - examining the sources of the persistently high unemployment rate in recent years and assessing the natural rate of unemployment.
• Demand for cash around Chinese New Year - exploring the impact of Chinese New Year on demand for currency notes and estimating the seasonal pattern.
• Results of the 2003 survey on credit derivatives and asset securitisation activity - providing survey results that show banks' participation in the credit derivatives market has increased, but their positions were relatively small.

The Quarterly Bulletin may be ordered from the HKMA at $100 per copy. The full text of the Quarterly Bulletin is available on the HKMA website at http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/public/qb_index.htm

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press) at 2878 8246
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
15 June 2004