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$1,058.1 billion at 30 April 2005.

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

At the end of April 2005 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,058.1 billion, were HK$2.0 billion higher than at the end of March 2005. Foreign currency assets decreased by HK$0.3 billion while Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$2.3 billion.

The decrease in foreign currency assets was mainly due to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness which was partly offset by valuation gains on foreign currency investments. The increase in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to valuation gains in the market value of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and placements received from fiscal reserves, which were partly offset by a decrease in bank borrowings.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of April 2005 was HK$286.6 billion, an increase of HK$0.1 billion, or 0.04%, from the end of March 2005. The increase was mainly due to an increase in the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding which was partly offset by a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Backing Assets decreased by HK$0.4 billion, or 0.12%, to HK$315.6 billion. The decrease was mainly attributable to the decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base which was partly offset by income from investments. At the end of April, the backing ratio stood at 110.14%, compared with 110.30% 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:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 May 2005

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 2005, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: