The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (June 28) that the total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to HK$3,979.1 billion as at May 31, 2024, HK$83.8 billion lower than that at the end of April 2024. Hong Kong dollar assets decreased by HK$69.2 billion and foreign currency assets decreased by HK$14.6 billion.
      
     The decline in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to the decrease in Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued but not yet settled at month end. The decline in foreign currency assets was mainly due to withdrawals of Fiscal Reserves placements and reduction in the month-end balances of unsettled purchase of securities, which were partly offset by mark-to-market revaluation of investments.
      
     The Currency Board Account shows that the Monetary Base at the end of May 2024 was HK$1,919.0 billion, increased by HK$2.9 billion, or 0.2 per cent, from the end of April 2024. The increase was mainly due to amortisation of discount on Exchange Fund Bills and Notes issued, which was partly offset by the decrease in the outstanding amount of Certificates of Indebtedness.
      
     The amount of Backing Assets increased by HK$12.1 billion, or 0.6 per cent, to HK$2,135.1 billion at the end of May 2024. The increase was mainly attributable to interest from investments and mark-to-market revaluation of investments, which were partly offset by the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness. The Backing Ratio increased from 110.79 per cent at the end of April 2024 to 111.26 per cent at the end of May 2024.

 
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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 June 2024, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
 

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released today (June 28) the analytical data on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's foreign currency reserves and foreign currency liquidity as at the end of May 2024 (Annex). These data are published monthly in the Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

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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 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 June 2024, the scheduled dates for issuing the press releases are as follows:
 

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for May 2024.
      
     The number of mortgage applications in May decreased month-on-month by 16.1 per cent to 8,077.
      
     Mortgage loans approved in May increased by 8.8 per cent compared with April to HK$31.6 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions increased by 3.7 per cent to HK$11.5 billion and those financing secondary market transactions increased by 14.9 per cent to HK$17.6 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing decreased by 4.8 per cent to HK$2.5 billion. 
      
     Mortgage loans drawn down during May increased by 27 per cent compared with April to HK$16.5 billion. 
      
     The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased from 93 per cent in April to 92 per cent in May. The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 2.2 per cent in April to 3.5 per cent in May.
      
     The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.2 per cent to HK$1,856.1 billion at end-May. 
      
     The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.09 per cent and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at nearly 0 per cent.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     According to statistics published today (June 28) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, total deposits with authorized institutions increased by 1.1 per cent in May 2024. Among the total, Hong Kong dollar deposits and foreign currency deposits increased by 0.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively in May. In the year to end-May, total deposits and Hong Kong dollar deposits grew by 3.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. Renminbi deposits in Hong Kong increased by 4.2 per cent in May to RMB1,134.0 billion at the end of May, mainly reflecting fund flows of corporates. The total remittance of renminbi for cross-border trade settlement amounted to RMB1,183.2 billion in May, compared with RMB1,257.0 billion in April. It should be noted that changes in deposits are affected by a wide range of factors, such as interest rate movements and fund-raising activities. It is therefore more appropriate to observe the longer-term trends, and not to over-generalise fluctuations in a single month.

     Total loans and advances decreased by 0.4 per cent in May, and decreased by 2.4 per cent in the year to end-May. Among the total, loans for use in Hong Kong (including trade finance) and loans for use outside Hong Kong decreased by 0.3 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively in May. The Hong Kong dollar loan-to-deposit ratio decreased to 81.4 per cent at the end of May from 82.1 per cent at the end of April, as Hong Kong dollar deposits increased while Hong Kong dollar loans decreased.

     Hong Kong dollar M2 and M3 both increased by 0.4 per cent in May and both increased by 1.5 per cent when compared to a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted Hong Kong dollar M1 decreased by 0.1 per cent in May and decreased by 8.4 per cent compared to a year ago, reflecting in part investment-related activities. Total M2 and total M3 both increased by 1.2 per cent in May. Compared to a year earlier, total M2 and total M3 both increased by 7.8 per cent.
      
     As monthly monetary statistics are subject to volatilities due to a wide range of transient factors, such as seasonal and IPO-related funding demand as well as business and investment-related activities, caution is required when interpreting the statistics.

Overall wage and payroll statistics
 
     According to the figures released today (June 28) by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), the average wage rate for all the selected industry sections surveyed, as measured by the wage index, increased by 3.9% in nominal terms in March 2024 over a year earlier.
 
     About 64% of the companies reported increase in average wage rates in March 2024 compared with a year ago. A total of 31% of the companies recorded decrease in average wage rates over the same period. The remaining 5% reported virtually no change in average wage rates.
 
     After discounting the changes in consumer prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index (A), the overall average wage rate for all the selected industry sections surveyed increased by 1.5% in real terms in March 2024 over a year earlier. 
 
     As for payroll, the index of payroll per person engaged for all the industry sections surveyed increased by 3.7% in nominal terms in the first quarter of 2024 over a year earlier. 
 
     After discounting the changes in consumer prices as measured by the Composite Consumer Price Index, the average payroll per person engaged increased by 1.8% in real terms in the first quarter of 2024 compared with a year earlier.
 
     The wage rate includes basic wages and other regular and guaranteed allowances and bonuses. Payroll includes elements covered by wage rate as well as other irregular payments to workers such as discretionary bonuses and overtime allowances. The payroll statistics therefore tend to show relatively larger quarter-to-quarter changes, affected by the number of hours actually worked and the timing of payment of bonuses and back-pay.
 
Sectoral changes
 
     For the nominal wage indices, year-on-year increases were recorded in all selected industry sections in March 2024, ranging from 3.1% to 4.7%.
 
     For the real wage indices, year-on-year increases were also recorded in all selected industry sections in March 2024, ranging from 0.8% to 2.4%.
 
     The year-on-year changes in the nominal and real wage indices for the selected industry sections from March 2023 to March 2024 are shown in Table 1.
 
     As for the nominal indices of payroll per person engaged, year-on-year increases were recorded in all selected industry sections in the first quarter of 2024, ranging from 2.3% to 8.5%.

     For the real payroll indices, year-on-year increases were also recorded in all selected industry sections in the first quarter of 2024, ranging from 0.4% to 6.5%.
 
     The year-on-year changes in the nominal and real indices of payroll per person engaged for selected industry sections from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024 are shown in Table 2. The quarterly changes in the seasonally adjusted nominal and real indices of payroll per person engaged in the same period are shown in Table 3.
 
Commentary
 
     A Government spokesman said that wages and labour earnings continued to attain decent increases in the first quarter of 2024 over a year earlier.
 
     The average wage rate for all selected industries rose by 3.9% in nominal terms in March 2024, slightly faster than the increase three months ago. After discounting for inflation, the average wage rate showed an accelerated increase of 1.5% in real terms.
 
     Payroll per person engaged, which includes basic wage, discretionary bonuses and other irregular payments, increased by 3.7% in nominal terms in the first quarter of 2024, also slightly faster than the increase in the preceding quarter. After discounting for inflation, payroll per person engaged showed an accelerated increase of 1.8% in real terms. All selected industries saw increases in payroll per person engaged in both nominal and real terms.
 
     Looking ahead, the tight labour market should continue to render support to growth in wages and labour earnings in the near term.
 
Other information
 
     Both wage indices and payroll indices are compiled quarterly based on the results of the Labour Earnings Survey (LES) conducted by C&SD. Wage index only covers employees up to the supervisory level (i.e. not including managerial and professional employees), whereas payroll index covers employees at all levels and proprietors actively engaged in the work of the establishment.
 
     Apart from the differences in employee coverage, wage statistics are conceptually different from the payroll statistics. Firstly, wage rate for an employee refers to the sum earned for his normal hours of work. It covers basic wages and other regular and guaranteed allowances and bonuses, but excludes earnings from overtime work and discretionary bonuses, which are however included in payroll per person engaged. Secondly, the payroll index of an industry is an indicator of the simple average payroll received per person engaged in the industry. Its movement is therefore affected by changes in wage rates, number of hours of work and occupational composition in the industry. In contrast, the wage index of an industry is devised to reflect the pure changes in wage rate, with the occupational composition between two successive statistical periods being kept unchanged. In other words, the wage index reflects the change in the price of labour. Because of these conceptual and enumeration differences between payroll and wage statistics, the movements in payroll indices and in wage indices do not necessarily match closely with each other.
 
     It should also be noted that different consumer price indices are used for compiling the real indices of wage and payroll to take into account the differences in their respective occupation coverage. Specifically, the Composite Consumer Price Index, being an indicator of overall consumer prices, is taken as the price deflator for payroll of workers at all levels of the occupational hierarchy. The Consumer Price Index (A), being an indicator of consumer prices for the relatively low expenditure group, is taken as the price deflator for wages in respect of employees engaged in occupations up to the supervisory level.
 
     Detailed breakdowns of the payroll and wage statistics are published in the "Quarterly Report of Wage and Payroll Statistics, March 2024". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1050009&scode=210).
 
     For enquiries on wage and payroll statistics, please contact the Wages and Labour Costs Statistics Section (1) of C&SD (Tel: 2887 5550 or email: wage@censtatd.gov.hk).