************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
According to statistics published today (February 27) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorized institutions went up by 1.1% in January 2015. As the increase in demand and time deposits exceeded the decrease in savings deposits, Hong Kong-dollar deposits increased by 1.6% during the month. Overall foreign-currency deposits grew by 0.6% in January. Renminbi deposits in Hong Kong decreased by 2.2% to RMB981.4 billion at the end of January. The total remittance of renminbi for cross-border trade settlement amounted to RMB548.0 billion in January 2015, compared with RMB657.8 billion in December 2014.
Total loans and advances grew by 1.2% in January, within which loans for use in Hong Kong (including trade finance) rose by 1.6% and loans for use outside Hong Kong edged up by 0.3%. As Hong Kong-dollar loans increased at a slower pace than deposits, the Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio declined to 82.5% at the end of January from 83.3% at the end of December 2014.
Seasonally adjusted Hong Kong-dollar M1 rose by 2.9% in January and expanded by 18.5% year on year. Seasonally unadjusted Hong Kong-dollar M3 increased by 1.6% in January and rose by 10.3% from a year earlier.
Ends/Friday, February 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:33
NNNN