Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Thursday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,603.9 billion on 31 March 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 March 2009 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,603.9 billion, were HK$94.7 billion higher than at the end of February 2009. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$96.7 billion while Hong Kong dollar assets decreased by HK$2.0 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to valuation gains on foreign currency investments and purchases of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars. The decline in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to fiscal drawdowns and sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies. These decreases were substantially offset by increases in the balance of the banking system, bank borrowings and placement by Hong Kong statutory bodies.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of March 2009 was HK$570.0 billion, an increase of HK$40.4 billion, or 7.6%, from the end of February 2009. The rise was due mainly to an increase in the Aggregate Balance.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$43.6 billion, or 7.6%, to HK$616.7 billion. The increase was attributable mainly to an increase in Aggregate Balance together with interest and revaluation gains from investments. The backing ratio remained unchanged at 108.19%.

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