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$3,428.9 billion as at 31 December 2015, HK$25.8 billion lower than that at the end of November 2015.  Foreign currency assets decreased by HK$6.9 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased by HK$18.9 billion.

The decline in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in unsettled purchases of securities, which was partly offset by the purchase of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars.  The decline in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to the sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of December 2015 was HK$1,591.7 billion, increased by HK$9.7 billion, or 0.6%, from the end of November 2015.  The rise was mainly due to an increase in the outstanding amount of Certificates of Indebtedness.

The amount of Backing Assets increased by HK$9.1 billion, or 0.5%, to HK$1,692.5 billion.  The increase was mainly attributable to the issuance of Certificates of Indebtedness.  The backing ratio decreased from 106.41% at the end of November 2015 to 106.33% at the end of December 2015.

The figures in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and the Currency Board Account are unaudited.  The audit of the Exchange Fund’s annual financial statements by the Director of Audit is in progress.

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

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 January 2016

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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 2016, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: