Jun. 1, 2012 (China Knowledge) - The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, its de-facto central bank, has announced that RMB deposits at authorized financial institutions in the special administrative region decreased 0.4% from March to RMB 552.4 billion in April 2012.

The figure reflected a month-on-month decline for the fifth consecutive month.

Analysts said that the decline in RMB deposits in Hong Kong was in part due to more outflow channels for Hong Kong RMB deposits, including the issue of dim sum bonds, RMB FDI and RMB QFII program. In addition, the reduced expectation of RMB appreciation also caused the decline.

In April, RMB receipts under the RMB cross-boarder trade settlement program totaled RMB 177.1 billion, less than the RMB 227.3 billion in March.

The HKMA said that the city's total deposits rose 1.0% in April. The HK dollar deposits increased 0.7%, due to an increase in savings and demand deposits, and foreign currency deposits edged up 1.4%.
 
Seasonally-adjusted HK dollar M1, the narrowest measure of money supply in an economy, increased 3.4 in April, and this increased 8.6% from the same period of last year, while unadjusted HK dollar M3, the broader measure, climbed 0.6% in the month and rose 5.5% YoY.