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HKMA Quarterly Bulletin February issue now on sale
The latest issue of the Quarterly Bulletin published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (Friday) contains a tentative analysis by the HKMA of Hong Kong's Balance of Payments (BOP) statistics, which are released for the first time.
The HKMA carried out a desk-top research exercise to estimate the BoP for Hong Kong in an attempt to understand the trends in these external accounts.
Hong Kong had an overall surplus in the BoP (excluding reserves) in 1993, 1994 and 1995. There was a modest current account surplus in 1993 and a small deficit in 1994. This was reflected in net private capital inflow and increased international reserves, which are beneficial for the long-term growth of Hong Kong.
There are many gaps in BoP statistics, the estimates in the HKMA study are therefore very rough estimates for indications purposes only.
Also published in the February issue of the Quarterly Bulletin is an article entitled "Hong Kong's Real Time Gross Settlement System" which outlines the important issues relating to the implementation and operations of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system.
The article pointed out that the performance of the RTGS system has been stable and satisfactory. Banks are generally managing their intraday liquidity reasonably well. An average of 499 intraday repo transactions, involving HK$26 bn, were done daily to facilitate payment flows. This represents about 33% of the HK$78 bn Exchange Fund paper currently held by banks. The Liquidity Adjustment Window, which was designed as a fall-back intraday liquidity facility, has been triggered only three times involving a total of HK$30 mn from December 9, 1996 to January 6, 1997.
The Quarterly Bulletin also carries an article entitled "Financial Disclosure Package 1996", which provides an update on the disclosure regime recommended for banking institutions by the HKMA.
The latest disclosure package covers cash flow statements, market risk exposure and segmental reporting. It is applicable to all licensed banks incorporated in Hong Kong and those restricted licence banks and deposit taking companies with total assets of HK$1 bn or more or those with total customer deposits in excess of HK$300 mn.