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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (March 7) that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to US$125.7 billion at the end of February, 2006, (end-January 2006: US$127.8 billion) (Table 1).
Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of February, 2006, also stood at US$125.7 billion (end-January 2006: US$127.8 billion).
Hong Kong is the world's seventh largest holder of foreign currency reserves, after Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Russia and India (Table 2).
The total foreign currency reserve assets of US$125.7 billion represent over six times the currency in circulation or about 40% of Hong Kong dollar M3.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
7 March 2006
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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 March 2006, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
March 7 SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's
Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
March 14 SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank
(Exchange Fund Balance Sheet Data)
March 31 Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and
Currency Board Account
March 31 SDDS Template on International Reserves and
Foreign Currency Liquidity
Ends/Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:31
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