Hong Kong's total deposits with authorized institutions fell 0.8 percent in August, with Hong Kong dollar deposits dropping 0.2 percent, revealed the Monetary Authority's latest statistics on Tuesday.

Statistics by the Monetary Authority showed foreign-currency deposits fell 1.3 percent while Chinese yuan deposits fell 7.7 percent to 71.1 billion yuan (about 10.4 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for around 2.9 percent of Hong Kong's foreign currency deposits.

Total loans and advances rose 0.6 percent. Loans for use in Hong Kong rose 0.7 percent and loans for use outside Hong Kong rose 0.2 percent. The Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio increased to 83.8 percent.

Seasonally adjusted Hong Kong-dollar M1 grew 0.5 percent in August and rose 10.5 percent over a year earlier. Unadjusted Hong Kong dollar M3 dipped 0.1 percent during the month but rose 0.2 percent from a year earlier.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2008)