Foreign Exchange Reserves of Hong Kong at end-January 1997

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today that, as at the end of January 1997, Hong Kong's foreign reserves held in the Exchange Fund stood at US$65.9 billion, up from the corresponding figure at the end of December last year of US$63.8 billion. This reflected largely the increase of foreign reserves held in the Exchange Fund as backing for additional banknotes issued ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Including forward transactions to be settled, Hong Kong's foreign reserves at the end of January 1997 stood at US$71.1 billion, compared with US$69.6 billion at the end of December 1996.

This is the first time the HKMA moved on to monthly disclosure on foreign exchange reserves of Hong Kong, as part of the ongoing effort to increase transparency of the HKMA's operations. An HKMA spokesman cautioned, however, that "monthly figures are likely to show sharp seasonal variations."

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 February 1997

Foreign Reserves Ranking

1. Japan	US$217 billion	Jan-97
2. China	US$105 billion	Dec-96
3. Germany	US$88 billion	Dec-96
4. Taiwan	US$88 billion	Dec-96
5. United States	US$77 billion	Dec-96
6. Singapore	US$77 billion	Dec-96
7. Hong Kong	US$65.9 billion	Jan-97
8. Spain	US$59 billion	Dec-96

Sources: IMF, HKMA

Exchange Fund Foreign Currency Assets

(US$ Bn)
	Excluding forward	Net forward	Including forward
	transactions	transactions	transactions
Mar-95	52.4	-0.2	52.2
Jun-95	53.6	-	53.6
Sep-95	51.8	2.8	54.6
Dec-95	55.4	1.8	57.2
Mar-96	58.1	1.7	59.8
Jun-96	57.3	2.7	60
Sep-96	55.4	6.7	62.1
Dec-96	63.8	5.7	69.6*
Jan-97	65.9	5.2	71.1

*Does not cross-add due to rounding