HONG KONG MONETARY AUTHORITY Annual Report 1996
HONG KONG MONETARY AUTHORITY
In 1996, over $70 bn was raised through debt issues by the private sector. This represents an increase of 600% over the amount issued in 1991. During the same period. the net issue size of the Exchange Fund Bills and Notes increased by around five times to $33.12 bn in 1996 (Table 3). By comparison, funds raised in the local stock market through new company listings amounted to $31 bn in 1996.
| TABLE 2: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OUTSTANDING HONG KONG DOLLAR DEBT INSTRUMENTS* | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| * end of year figures. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ** include $500 million of a 2-year Government bond. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| N.A.: not available | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10-year Exchange Fund Notes issued
In October, the inaugural issue of 10-year Exchange Fund Notes was launched and was more than 13 times oversubscribed.The average accepted yield was 92 basis points over the corresponding US Treasuries, indicating strong market appetite for high quality long-term debt instruments and confidence in Hong Kong's future after 1997.
Special issue of short-term bills
Four tap issues of 28-day Exchange Fund Bills were tendered in November and December 1996 to facilitate the intraday liquidity management of banks in the initial stage of the implementation of the RTGS system.