Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (Thursday) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$1,253.4 billion on 30 April 2007.

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 2007 the total assets of the Exchange Fund, at HK$1,253.4 billion, were HK$30.0 billion higher than at the end of March 2007.  Foreign currency assets increased by HK$15.1 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets increased by HK$14.9 billion.

The rise in foreign currency assets was due mainly to valuation gains on foreign currency investments and interest and dividend income from foreign currency assets.  The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to valuation gains of Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund, placements received from fiscal reserves and an increase in Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued but not yet settled.

The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of April 2007 was HK$298.2 billion, a decrease of HK$0.9 billion, or 0.3%, from the end of March 2007.  The decline was due mainly to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness.

The Backing Assets increased by HK$0.8 billion, or 0.2%, to HK$332.6 billion.  The increase was attributable mainly to interest from investments and revaluation gains, which were partly offset by the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness in the Monetary Base.  Reflecting this, the backing ratio rose from 110.93% at the end of March 2007 to 111.53% at the end of April 2007.

Attachment
Annex 1 : Abridged Balance Sheet of the Exchange Fund
Annex 2 : Currency Board Account

For further enquiries, please contact:
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
31 May 2007

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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 2007, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows: