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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
According to statistics published today (March 31) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorised institutions decreased by 0.7% in February. As the decrease in demand and time deposits exceeded the increase in savings deposits, Hong Kong-dollar deposits declined by 0.3% during the month. Overall foreign-currency deposits also decreased by 1.1% in February. Renminbi deposits in Hong Kong declined by 5.7% to RMB803.9 billion at the end of February. The total remittance of renminbi for cross-border trade settlement amounted to RMB279.8 billion in February, compared with RMB480.1 billion in January.
Total loans and advances went down by 0.8% in February. Among the total, loans for use in Hong Kong (including trade finance) declined by 0.8% from a month ago, and loans for use outside Hong Kong also decreased by 0.8%. As Hong Kong-dollar loans decreased at a faster pace than Hong Kong-dollar deposits, the Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio edged down to 78.3% at the end of February from 78.4% at the end of January.
Seasonally adjusted Hong Kong-dollar M1 increased by 0.4% in February and grew by 13.3% year on year. Seasonally unadjusted Hong Kong-dollar M3 edged down by 0.2% during the month but expanded by 8.7% from a year earlier.
Ends/Thursday, March 31, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:01
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