Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

Press Releases

23 Jan 2009

Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Friday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,557.7 billion on 31 December 2008.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released monthly together with the Currency Board Account. The figures in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and the Currency Board Account are unaudited. The audit of the Exchange Fund's annual accounts by the Director of Audit is in progress.

At the end of December 2008 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,557.7 billion, were HK$131.6 billion higher than at the end of November 2008. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$129.9 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$1.7 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 increases in the balance of the banking system and bank borrowings. These increases were substantially offset by the sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies and fiscal drawdowns.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of December 2008 was HK$506.6 billion, an increase of HK$88.0 billion, or 21.0%, from the end of November 2008. The rise was due mainly to increases in the Aggregate Balance and Certificates of Indebtedness. The latter reflected the seasonal demand for banknotes around Christmas and New Year.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$93.8 billion, or 20.4%, to HK$554.6 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to an increase in the Aggregate Balance and issuance of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base together with revaluation gains and interest from investments. At the end of December 2008, the backing ratio stood at 109.48%, compared with 110.09% at the end of November 2008.

While the magnitude of increase in the Backing Assets was more than the Monetary Base, the proportionate increase in the former is smaller than that in the latter. The backing ratio, therefore, declined to 109.48% at the end of December, compared with 110.09% a month ago.

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

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
23 January 2009

 

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 January 2009, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

7 January
(Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
14 January
(Issued)
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund)
23 January Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
30 January SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
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Last revision date : 23 January 2009