Hong Kong's official foreign- currency reserve assets rose to 152.7 billion U.S. dollars in December 2007, up 2.3 billion U.S. dollars from the previous month, revealed the Monetary Authority on Monday.

 

Including unsettled forward contracts, Hong Kong's foreign-currency reserve assets also stood at 152.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 2.1 billion U.S. dollars from November 2007, according to the Monetary Authority's latest statistics.

 

Hong Kong's total foreign-currency reserve assets of 152.7 billion U.S. dollars represent about seven times the currency in circulation, or 33 percent of Hong Kong dollar broad money supply, M3.

 

Hong Kong ,is currently the world's ninth largest holder of foreign-currency reserves based on the latest published figures, after China's mainland, Japan, Russia, India, Taiwan of China, Republic of Korea, Brazil and Singapore.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)