Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (Monday) key data on the balance sheet of the Exchange Fund at the end of April 2006, reporting an increase of HK$9.5 billion in the foreign assets of the Exchange Fund during the month.

Foreign assets, representing the external assets of the Exchange Fund, amounted to HK$923.3 billion.

The Monetary Base, comprising Certificates of Indebtedness, Government-issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the Aggregate Balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, amounted to HK$288.7 billion.

Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$67.0 billion.

Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$1.7 billion.

The balance sheet data of the Exchange Fund are released in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and are referred to as the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank under SDDS (Annex).

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
15 May 2006

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 May 2006, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: