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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
According to statistics published today (February 29) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorised institutions increased by 1.6% in January 2016. As the decline in demand and savings deposits exceeded the increase in time deposits, Hong Kong-dollar deposits edged down by 0.2% during the month. By contrast, overall foreign-currency deposits rose by 3.4% in January. Renminbi deposits in Hong Kong edged up by 0.1% to RMB852.1 billion at the end of January. The total remittance of renminbi for cross-border trade settlement amounted to RMB480.1 billion in January, compared with RMB667.5 billion in December 2015.
Total loans and advances were virtually unchanged in January. Among the total, loans for use in Hong Kong (including trade finance) edged up by 0.2% from a month ago, while loans for use outside Hong Kong decreased by 0.6%. As Hong Kong-dollar loans stayed flat while Hong Kong-dollar deposits went down, the Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio edged up to 78.4% at the end of January from 78.2% at the end of December 2015.
Seasonally adjusted Hong Kong-dollar M1 declined by 0.5% in January but expanded by 11.5% year on year. Seasonally unadjusted Hong Kong-dollar M3 edged down by 0.3% during the month but grew by 8.3% from a year earlier.
Ends/Monday, February 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:10
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