Monetary Statistics for February 2002

According to statistics published today (Thursday) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, both total deposits and loans of all authorized institutions declined during the month of February. Table 1 provides a summary and comparison with earlier months.

Deposits

Total deposits decreased moderately by 2% in February, with foreign currency deposits recording a larger decline than Hong Kong dollar deposits.

The drop in Hong Kong dollar deposits was in part attributable to a switch from deposits to cash ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays. Among different categories of deposits, savings deposits registered an increase of 1.1%, which were more than offset by decreases in demand and time deposits. The contraction in foreign currency deposits reflected largely a fall in non-US dollar foreign currency deposits.

Loans and advances

Total loans and advances declined slightly by 0.9% during the month. Of the total, loans for use outside Hong Kong shrank by 4.1%, while loans for use in Hong Kong fell marginally by 0.3%.

Analysed by currency, both Hong Kong dollar denominated loans and foreign currency loans decreased during the month. As Hong Kong dollar deposits registered a larger decline than Hong Kong dollar loans, the Hong Kong dollar loan-to-deposit ratio edged up to 91.2%.

Money supply

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Hong Kong dollar M1 rose slightly by 0.7% in February. Unadjusted Hong Kong dollar M2 was virtually unchanged, while Hong Kong dollar M3 declined marginally by 0.1%. Compared with a year ago, unadjusted Hong Kong dollar M1 increased significantly by 14.1%, while Hong Kong dollar M2 and M3 shrank by 0.5% and 0.3% respectively. The strong growth in Hong Kong dollar M1 in part reflected the different timing of the Chinese New Year in these two years.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 March 2002