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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (April 7) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$125.9 billion at the end of March 2006 (end-February 2006: US$125.7 billion) (Table 1).
Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of March 2006 also stood at US$125.9 billion (end-February 2006: US$125.7 billion).
Hong Kong is the worldˇ¦s seventh largest holder of foreign currency reserves, after Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Russia and India (Table 2).
The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$125.9 billion represent over six times the currency in circulation or about 38% of Hong Kong dollar M3.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802
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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 April 2006, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
April 7 SDDS International Reserves
(Hong Kong's Latest Foreign
Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
April 18 SDDS Analytical Accounts
of the Central Bank
(Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
April 28 Exchange Fund Abridged Balance
Sheet and Currency Board Account
April 28 SDDS Template on International
Reserves and Foreign Currency
Liquidity
Ends/Friday, April 7, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:43
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