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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (October 7) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$226.9 billion at the end of September, 2009 (end-August, 2009: US$223.3 billion) (Table 1).
Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of September, 2009 stood at US$229.2 billion (end-August, 2009: US$223.3 billion).
Hong Kong is the world's seventh largest holder of foreign currency reserves based on the latest published figures, after Mainland China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, India and Korea (Table 2).
The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$226.9 billion represent about nine times the currency in circulation or 50% of Hong Kong dollar M3.
Release calendar
The release calendar of foreign currency reserve assets for 2010 is announced below:
Reference Month Release Date
January 2010 February 8, 2010
February 2010 March 8, 2010
March 2010 April 9, 2010
April 2010 May 7, 2010
May 2010 June 7, 2010
June 2010 July 7, 2010
July 2010 August 9, 2010
August 2010 September 7, 2010
September 2010 October 7, 2010
October 2010 November 8, 2010
November 2010 December 7, 2010
December 2010 January 7, 2011
For further enquiries, please contact:
Alice Lo, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), 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 October 2009, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
October 7
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 30
Exchange Fund abridged balance sheet and currency board account
October 30
SDDS template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity
Ends/Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:26
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