****************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (August 14) key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of July, 2007, reporting a decrease of HK$16.8 billion in the foreign assets of the Exchange Fund during the month.
Foreign assets, representing the external assets of the Exchange Fund, amounted to HK$1,003 billion.
The Monetary Base, comprising Certificates of Indebtedness, Government issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the Aggregate Balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, amounted to HK$296.9 billion.
Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$96.8 billion.
Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$1.8 billion.
The analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund are released in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and are referred to as the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank under SDDS (Annex).
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
14 August 2007
***************************************************
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 August, 2007, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
August 7 SDDS International Reserves
(Issued) (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency
Reserve Assets Figures)
August 14 SDDS Analytical Accounts of the
Central Bank (Analytical Accounts
of the Exchange Fund)
August 31 Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet
and Currency Board Account
August 31 SDDS Template on International Reserves
and Foreign Currency Liquidity
Ends/Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:31
NNNN
