Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

Press Releases

28 Jan 2005

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$1,061.9 billion at 31 December 2004.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released monthly together with the Currency Board Account. The figures in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account are unaudited. The audit of the Exchange Fund's annual accounts by the Director of Audit is in progress.

At the end of December 2004 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,061.9 billion, were HK$11.9 billion lower than at the end of November 2004. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased, by HK$10.9 billion and HK$1.0 billion respectively.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in securities purchase but settled in the following month. The decrease was partly offset by an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness, valuation gains on foreign currency investments, income from foreign currency assets and purchases of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars. The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to fiscal drawdowns and the sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies, which were partly offset by increases in bank borrowings and in the balance of the banking system.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of December 2004 was HK$294.9 billion, an increase of HK$6.5 billion, or 2.3%, from the end of November 2004. The rise was mainly due to increases in the Aggregate Balance and in Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$6.8 billion, or 2.1%, to HK$327.3 billion. The rise was mainly attributable to the corresponding increases in the Aggregate Balance and in Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base together with income from investments. At the end of December, the backing ratio stood at 110.99%, compared with 111.14% at the end of November.

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
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 January 2005

 

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 January 2005, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

7 January
(Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
14 January
(Issued)
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
28 January Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
31 January SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
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Last revision date : 28 January 2005