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$1,426.1 billion on 30 November 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 November 2008 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,426.1 billion, were HK$87.5 billion higher than at the end of October 2008. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$87.0 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$0.5 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to purchases of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars and valuation gains on foreign currency investments.

The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to an increase in the balance of the banking system and placements received from fiscal reserves. These increases were substantially offset by the sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies and a decrease in bank borrowings.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of November 2008 was HK$418.5 billion, an increase of HK$55.7 billion, or 15.4%, from the end of October 2008. The rise was due mainly to increases in the Aggregate Balance and the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$64.7 billion, or 16.4%, to HK$460.8 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to an increase in the Aggregate Balance in the Monetary Base together with revaluation gains and interest from investments. Reflecting this, the backing ratio rose from 109.15% at the end of October 2008 to 110.09% at the end of November 2008.

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

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

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 December 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 December 2008, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: