Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund
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    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (January 15) key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of December 2006, reporting an increase of HK$3.5 billion in the foreign assets of the Exchange Fund during the month.

     Foreign assets, representing the external assets of the Exchange Fund, amounted to HK$985.0 billion.

     The Monetary Base, comprising Certificates of Indebtedness, Government issued currency notes and coins in circulation, the Aggregate Balance of the banking system and Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, amounted to HK$298.0 billion.

     Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$52.5 billion.

     Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$0.2 billion.

     The analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund are released in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and are referred to as the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank under SDDS (Annex).


For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
January 15, 2007

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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 January 2007, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

     January 8      SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest
     (Issued)       Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)

     January 15     SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank
                    (Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund)

     January 26     Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and
                    Currency Board Account

     January 31     SDDS Template on International Reserves and
                    Foreign Currency Liquidity

Ends/Monday, January 15, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:30

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