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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (January 14) key analytical accounts of the Exchange Fund at the end of December 2008, reporting an increase of HK$84.2 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$1,272.6 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$506.6 billion.
Claims on the private sector in Hong Kong amounted to HK$151.1 billion.
Foreign liabilities, representing mainly obligations under repurchase agreements, amounted to HK$0.4 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:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802.
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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 2009, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
January 7 (Issued)
SDDS International Reserves (Hong Kong's Latest Foreign Currency Reserve Assets Figures)
January 14
SDDS Analytical Accounts of the Central Bank (Analytical Accounts of the Exchange Fund)
January 23
Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet and Currency Board Account
January 30
SDDS Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:01
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