Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Monday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,024.1 billion as at 31 July 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 July 2001, the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,024.1 billion, were HK$3.7 billion lower than at the end of June 2001. Foreign currency assets increased by HK$2.2 billion while Hong Kong Dollar assets decreased by HK$5.9 billion.

The increase in foreign currency assets was mainly due to income from foreign currency assets and valuation gains on foreign currency investments, which were partly offset by 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 the 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 July 2001 was HK$219.8 billion, a decrease of HK$0.6 billion, or 0.3%, from the end of June 2001. The decrease was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness of HK$1.3 billion during the month.

The backing assets at the end of July remained virtually unchanged at HK$244.9 billion. The corresponding decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness in the monetary base was offset by income from investments and revaluation gains of HK$1.3 billion. As a result, the backing ratio increased from 111.09% at the end of June to 111.39% at the end of July.

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
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 August 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 August 2001, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: