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$1,043.8 billion as at 31 March 2001.

The figure is included in the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet, which is released on a monthly basis together with the Currency Board Account.

At the end of March 2001, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,043.8 billion, were HK$30.3 billion lower than at the end of February 2001. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$6.5 billion while Hong Kong Dollar assets decreased by HK$36.8 billion.

The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to the decrease in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and reductions in placements by other government funds.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of March 2001 was HK$216.7 billion, a decrease of HK$0.4 billion, or 0.2%, from the end of February 2001. The decline was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$0.8 billion, which was partly offset by increases in Exchange Fund Bills and Notes and the Aggregate Balance.

The backing assets increased by HK$0.6 billion, or 0.2%, from HK$239.2 billion to HK$239.8 billion. The increase was mainly due to income from investment and revaluation gains of HK$1.2 billion, which were partly offset by the decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base. Reflecting this, the backing ratio increased from 110.23% at the end of February to 110.67% at the end of March.

Attachment

Annex 1 : Abridged Balance Sheet of the Exchange Fund

Annex 2 : Currency Board Account

For further enquiries, please contact:

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

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 April 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 April, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: