HKMA Quarterly Bulletin (December 2006 Issue)

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (Wednesday) published the December 2006 issue of its Quarterly Bulletin.

This issue of the Quarterly Bulletin contains the regular Half-Yearly Monetary and Financial Stability Report, which analyses recent external and domestic influences on Hong Kong's monetary and financial systems. The Report notes that Hong Kong continues to enjoy sturdy growth with moderate inflation.

This Quarterly Bulletin contains two feature articles:

• Financial integration in Asia - examining the level of regional integration of Asia's capital and banking markets.
• A framework for macro stress testing the credit risk of banks in Hong Kong - describing a framework developed for stress testing the credit exposures of Hong Kong's retail banks to macroeconomic shocks.

The Bulletin also includes a Supervisor's Memo which provides answers to some possible questions on the use test for internal ratings-based approaches under Basel II.

The Quarterly Bulletin may be ordered from the HKMA at $100 per copy. A separate version of the Half-Yearly Monetary and Financial Stability Report (English only) may be ordered at $60 per copy. The Bulletin and the Report may also be bought at the HKMA Information Centre on 55th Floor, Two International Finance Centre. The full text of the Bulletin (http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/public/qb_index.htm) and the Report (http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/public/mfsr_index.htm) is available on the HKMA website.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
20 December 2006