Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (22 January) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,020.8 billion as at 31 December 2000.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released on a monthly basis together with the Currency Board Account. The figures in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account are unaudited. The audit of the Exchange Fund's annual accounts by the Director of Audit is in progress.

At the end of December 2000, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,020.8 billion, were HK$25.9 billion higher than at the end of November. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong Dollar assets increased, by HK$22.7 billion and HK$3.2 billion respectively.

The increase in foreign currency assets was mainly due to evaluation gains on foreign currency investments and increase in currency notes outstanding.

The increase in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to an increase in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund, which was partly offset by a decrease in placements by other government funds and other institutions.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of December was HK$215.4 billion, an increase of HK$6.7 billion, or 3.2%, from the end of November 2000. The increase was mainly due to an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness, mainly reflecting the seasonal demand for cash around Christmas and New Year.

The backing assets increased by HK$7.4 billion, or 3.2%, from HK$234.2 billion to HK$241.6 billion. The rise was mainly driven by the corresponding increase in Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base, together with net income and revaluation gains. As a result, the backing ratio remained virtually unchanged at 112.2%.

Attachment

Annex 1 : Abridged Balance Sheet of the Exchange Fund

Annex 2 : Currency Board Account

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Caitlin Wong, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority

22 January 2001

At present, four press releases relating to the Exchange Fund's data are issued 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, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: