Tag Archives: China

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
 
     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (March 18) the composite interest rate at the end of February 2021. (Note 1)
      
     The composite interest rate, which is a measure of the average cost of funds of banks, decreased by 1 basis point to 0.23 per cent at the end of February 2021, from 0.24 per cent at the end of January 2021 (see Chart 1 in the Annex). The decrease in composite interest rate mainly reflected a decrease in the weighted funding cost for deposits during the month (see Chart 2 in the Annex). (Note 2)
      
     The historical data of the composite interest rate from the end of the fourth quarter of 2003 to the end of February 2021 are available in the Monthly Statistical Bulletin on the HKMA website (www.hkma.gov.hk).
 
Note 1: The composite interest rate is a weighted average interest rate of all Hong Kong dollar interest-rate-sensitive liabilities, which include deposits from customers, amounts due to banks, negotiable certificates of deposit and other debt instruments, and all other liabilities that do not involve any formal payment of interest but the values of which are sensitive to interest rate movements (such as Hong Kong dollar non-interest bearing demand deposits) on the books of banks. Data from retail banks, which account for about 90 per cent of the total customers’ deposits in the banking sector, are used in the calculation. It should be noted that the composite interest rate represents only average interest expenses. There are various other costs involved in the making of a loan, such as operating costs (e.g. staff and rental expenses), credit cost and hedging cost, which are not covered by the composite interest rate.

Note 2: Since June 2019, the composite interest rate and weighted deposit rate have been calculated based on the new local “Interest rate risk in the banking book” (IRRBB) framework. As such, these figures are not strictly comparable with those of previous months. read more

     The Thematic Household Survey Report No. 72 is published by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) today (March 18).      This publication contains key findings of the Thematic Household Survey conducted d… read more

     Further to the external merchandise trade statistics in value terms for January 2021 released earlier on, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (March 18) the volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade for that month.
 
     In January 2021, the volume of Hong Kong’s total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 44.6% and 37.2% respectively over January 2020.
 
     Comparing the three months ending January 2021 with the three months ending January 2020, the volume of Hong Kong’s total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 18.7% and 17.3% respectively.
 
     Comparing the three-month period ending January 2021 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 9.1% and 10.3% respectively.
 
     Changes in volume of external merchandise trade are derived from changes in external merchandise trade value with the effect of price changes discounted.
 
     Comparing January 2021 with January 2020, the prices of total exports of goods decreased by 0.4%, while the prices of imports of goods increased by 0.5%.
 
     Price changes in external merchandise trade are reflected by changes in unit value indices of external merchandise trade, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, specific price data.
 
     The terms of trade index is derived from the ratio of price index of total exports of goods to that of imports of goods.  Compared with the same period in 2020, the index decreased by 1.0% in January 2021.

     Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
 
     Comparing January 2021 with January 2020, double-digit increases were recorded for the total export volume to Taiwan (71.4%), Vietnam (67.4%), the mainland of China (the Mainland) (59.3%), the USA (20.9%) and Japan (20.3%).
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to Vietnam (-4.1%), Japan (-1.3%), the USA (-0.5%) and the Mainland (-0.2%) decreased. On the other hand, the total export prices to Taiwan increased by 0.8%.
 
     Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
 
     Comparing January 2021 with January 2020, double-digit increases were recorded for the import volume from Taiwan (55.0%), the Mainland (43.5%), Japan (37.7%), Korea (33.9%) and Singapore (31.9%).
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from Korea (5.0%), Taiwan (3.9%), Singapore (1.9%) and Japan (1.2%) increased. On the other hand, the import prices from the Mainland decreased by 2.0%.
 
Further information
 
     Details of the above statistics are published in the January 2021 issue of “Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Index Numbers”. Users can download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp230.jsp?productCode=B1020006).
 
     Enquiries on merchandise trade indices may be directed to the Trade Analysis Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel.: 2582 4918).
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     The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (March 18) the preliminary figures of chain volume measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by economic activity for the fourth quarter of 2020 and the whole year of 202… read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:      The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited on fraudulent web… read more