HK Releases Balance of Payments Accounts

Hong Kong's detailed balance of payments (BoP) accounts for 1998, 1999 and every of the four quarters of 1999 were released for the first time by the Census and Statistics Department Monday.

A BoP account is an integrated statistical statement of an economy's external transactions with the rest of the world. The detailed BoP account released contains detailed breakdowns for both the current account and the capital and financial account.

While the broad BoP account has been compiled since the reference year of 1997, this is the first time that the full BoP account with complete breakdowns of capital and financial flows has been compiled and released.

In compiling and presenting the detailed BoP account of Hong Kong, the international standards prescribed in the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are adopted. It is also in compliance with the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard, to which Hong Kong has subscribed.

In 1999, Hong Kong recorded a BoP surplus of 74.1 billion HK dollars (about US$9.5 billion), equivalent to 6 percent of its GDP. This was in contrast to a BoP deficit of HK$53.8 billion (about US$6.9 billion), or 4.2 percent of the GDP, in 1998.

Of the major BoP components, the current account surplus widened markedly to HK$72 billion (US$9.23 billion) in 1999, from HK$22.5 billion (about US$2.88 billion) in 1998. At the same time, there was a net inflow of financial non-reserve assets of HK$11.7 billion (about US$1.5 billion) in 1999, in contrast to a net outflow of HK$65. 6 billion (about US$8.41 billion) in 1998.Analyzed by quarter, there was a sustained BoP surplus throughout the four quarters of 1999, with the surplus increasing markedly in the third quarter and even more so in the fourth quarter. Apart from the distinct improvement in the current account surplus in the second half of 1999 upon a sharp rebound in exports of both goods and services, the turnaround in financial flows back to a net inflow toward the year-end also contributed to the marked rise in BoP surplus in the fourth quarter.



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