According to statistics published today (Friday) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorized institutions rose by 1.3% in April 2019. Hong Kong-dollar deposits expanded by 1.6% during the month, mainly driven by increases in demand and time deposits. Overall foreign-currency deposits picked up by 1.1% in April. Renminbi deposits in Hong Kong increased by 1.7% to RMB612.3 billion at the end of April. The total remittance of renminbi for cross-border trade settlement amounted to RMB420.7 billion in April, compared with RMB464.5 billion in March 2019.
Total loans and advances went up by 0.8% in April. Among the total, loans for use in Hong Kong (including trade finance) grew by 1.0% from a month ago, and loans for use outside Hong Kong edged up by 0.1%. 1 The Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio decreased to 87.3% at the end of April from 87.8% at the end of March, as Hong Kong-dollar loans grew at a slower pace than Hong Kong-dollar deposits.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, Hong Kong-dollar M1 rose by 1.7% in April and declined by 5.4% year-on-year. Seasonally unadjusted Hong Kong-dollar M3 picked up by 1.5% during the month and decreased by 0.3% from a year earlier.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 May 2019
1 The December 2018 figures for loans for use in/outside Hong Kong have been restated to reflect authorized institutions’ reclassification of working capital loans. The reported month-on-month and quarter-on-quarter growth rates are calculated based on the reclassified loan data. As reclassified loan data before December 2018 are not available, year-on-year growth rates of loans for use in/outside Hong Kong (including their sub-components) as shown in Table 1H of the Annex are calculated based on the data without such reclassification.