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$1,050.7 billion as at 30 April 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 April 2001, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,050.7 billion, were HK$6.9 billion higher than at the end of March 2001. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets increased, by HK$2.5 billion and HK$4.4 billion respectively.

The increase in Hong Kong dollar assets reflected mainly the increase in market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of April 2001 was HK$220.5 billion, an increase of HK$3.8 billion, or 1.7%, from the end of March 2001. The increase was mainly due to an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$3.2 billion during the month-end holiday weekend.

The backing assets increased by HK$3.7 billion, or 1.6%, from HK$239.8 billion to HK$243.5 billion. The rise was mainly driven by the corresponding increase in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base, together with income from investment. At the end of April, the backing ratio stood at 110.48%, compared 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
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 May 2001

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