Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures Released

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Monday) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$181.7 billion at the end of January 2009 (end-December 2008: US$182.5 billion) (Table 1).

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of January 2009 also stood at US$181.7 billion (end-December 2008: US$184.8 billion).

Hong Kong is the world's eighth largest holder of foreign currency reserves based on the latest published figures, after Mainland China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, India, Korea and Brazil (Table 2).

The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$181.7 billion represent about seven times the currency in circulation or 43% of Hong Kong dollar M3.

Tables 1 & 2

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