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$1,509.2 billion on 28 February 2009.

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 February 2009 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,509.2 billion, were HK$41.1 billion lower than at the end of January 2009. Foreign currency assets decreased by HK$32.9 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased by HK$8.2 billion.

The decline in foreign currency assets was due mainly to valuation losses on foreign currency investments and redemptions of Certificates of Indebtedness. The decline in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to fiscal drawdowns and valuation losses on Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of February 2009 was HK$529.6 billion, a decrease of HK$11.9 billion, or 2.2%, from the end of January 2009. The decline was due mainly to decreases in the Certificates of Indebtedness and the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.

The Backing Assets decreased by HK$12.4 billion, or 2.1%, to HK$573.0 billion. The decrease was attributable mainly to the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base and revaluation losses, which were partly offset by interest from investments. At the end of February 2009, the backing ratio stood at 108.19%, compared with 108.11% at the end of January 2009.

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