Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund
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    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (October 16) key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of September 2006, reporting an increase of HK$3.3 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$957.7 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$293 billion.  

     Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$58.6 billion.

     Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$1.8 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).


Release calendar

     The release calendar of the Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank for 2007 is announced below:

     Reference Month          Release Date

January 2007                  February 14 2007
February 2007                 March 14 2007
March 2007                    April 16 2007
April 2007                    May 14 2007
May 2007                      June 14 2007
June 2007                     July 16 2007
July 2007                     August 14 2007
August 2007              September 14 2007
September 2007                October 15 2007
October 2007                  November 14 2007
November 2007                 December 14 2007
December 2007                 January 14 2008


For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

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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 October 2006, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:

October 9     SDDS International Reserves
(Issued)      (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign
               Currency Reserve Assets Figures)

October 16    SDDS Analytical Accounts of
              the Central Bank
              (Analytical Accounts of
               the Exchange Fund)

October 27    Exchange Fund Abridged Balance
              Sheet and Currency Board Account

October 31    SDDS Template on International
              Reserves and Foreign Currency
              Liquidity

Ends/Monday, October 16, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:49

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