Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Wednesday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,459.6 billion on 31 March 2008.

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 March 2008 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,459.6 billion, were HK$2.4 billion lower than at the end of February 2008. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$10.7 billion while Hong Kong dollar assets decreased by HK$13.1 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to valuation gains on foreign currency investments, and interest and dividend income from foreign currency assets. These increases were partly offset by redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness.

The decline in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to valuation losses on Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and fiscal drawdowns.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of March 2008 was HK$328.7 billion, a decrease of HK$2.6 billion, or 0.8%, from the end of February 2008. The decline was due mainly to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness which was partly offset by an increase in market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets decreased by HK$1.0 billion, or 0.3%, to HK$363.1 billion. The decrease was attributable mainly to the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base, which was partly offset by revaluation gains and interest from investments. Reflecting this, the backing ratio rose from 109.88% at the end of February 2008 to 110.44% at the end of March 2008.

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

For further enquiries, please contact:
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 April 2008

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 April 2008, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: