Monetary Statistics for October 2006

According to statistics published today (Thursday) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorized institutions increased by 0.3% in October 2006. Of the total, foreign currency deposits rose by 0.9% but Hong Kong dollar deposits declined by 0.2%. Within foreign currency deposits, renminbi deposits remained stable at RMB 22.6 billion yuan in October.

Total loans and advances registered a 1.9% decrease in October. While loans for use in Hong Kong declined by 2.3%, loans for use outside Hong Kong rose by 1.0%. Hong Kong dollar loans and foreign currency loans decreased by 2.4% and 0.1% respectively. As the decrease in Hong Kong dollar loans was larger than that of Hong Kong dollar deposits, the Hong Kong dollar loan-to-deposit ratio fell to 77.4% in October.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Hong Kong dollar M1 grew by 5.8% in October and by 9.3% from a year earlier. Unadjusted Hong Kong dollar M2 and M3 shrank by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively during the month, but they rose by 16.4% and 16.5% respectively on a year-on-year comparison.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 November 2006