
****************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (October 14) key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of September 2008, reporting an increase of HK$12.4 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$1,195.1 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$347.3 billion.
Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$78.3 billion.
Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$23.7 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).
Release calendar
----------------
The release calendar of the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank for 2009 is announced below:
Reference Month Release Date
January February 16, 2009
February March 16, 2009
March April 14, 2009
April May 14, 2009
May June 15, 2009
June July 14, 2009
July August 14, 2009
August September 14, 2009
September October 14, 2009
October November 16, 2009
November December 14, 2009
December January 14, 2010
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
***************************************************
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 October 2008, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
October 8 (Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
October 14
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund)
October 31
Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
October 31
SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
Ends/Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:26
NNNN