Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

Press Releases

31 Mar 2005

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$1,074.1 billion at 28 February 2005.

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 February 2005 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,074.1 billion, were HK$1.1 billion higher than at the end of January 2005. Foreign currency assets decreased by HK$1.6 billion while Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$2.7 billion.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness and sales of foreign currencies for Hong Kong dollars, which were partly offset by exchange gains on foreign currency investments and income from foreign currency assets.

The increase in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to an increase in bank borrowings, the purchase of Hong Kong dollars from foreign currencies and valuation gains in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund. These increases were partly offset by a decrease in the balance of the banking system and fiscal drawdowns.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of February 2005 was HK$296.2 billion, a decrease of HK$9.6 billion, or 3.1%, from the end of January 2005. The decrease was mainly due to decreases in the Aggregate Balance, in Certificates of Indebtedness and in the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets decreased by HK$8.6 billion, or 2.5%, to HK$331.6 billion. The decrease was mainly attributable to the corresponding decreases in the Aggregate Balance and in Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base together with revaluation losses on investments, which were partly offset by income from investments. Reflecting this, the backing ratio increased from 111.24% at the end of January 2005 to 111.96% at the end of February 2005.

Attachment

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

For further enquiries, please contact:

H. F. Wong, Resource Coordinator (Press), at 2878 1802 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 March 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 March 2005, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

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