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$1,027.7 billion as at 30 June 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 June 2001, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,027.7 billion, were HK$14.8 billion lower than at the end of May 2001. Both foreign currency assets and Hong Kong dollar assets decreased, by HK$5.5 billion and HK$9.3 billion respectively.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in the amount of repurchase agreements outstanding. The decrease in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to the decrease in market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and reductions in placements by other government funds, which were partly offset by an increase in bank borrowings.

Figures in the Currency Board Account show that the monetary base at the end of June 2001 was HK$220.4 billion, an increase of HK$3.2 billion, or 1.5%, from the end of May 2001. The increase was mainly due to an increase in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$2.8 billion during the month.

The backing assets increased by HK$3.6 billion, or 1.5%, from HK$241.3 billion to HK$244.9 billion. The rise was mainly driven by the corresponding increase in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base. As a result, the backing ratio remained unchanged at 111.09%.

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
27 July 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 July 2001, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: