No Exchange Fund transfers planned in next 5 years, Hong Kong’s Paul Chan says

Hong Kong does not plan to make another transfer from its Exchange Fund in the next five years, the finance chief has said, citing a new medium-range forecast that explains why the rare move will not be repeated.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po elaborated on his plan on Saturday, after his budget announcement that he would withdraw HK$150 billion (US$19.2 billion) from the government’s main investment arm and de facto sovereign wealth fund sparked concerns about the city’s financial stability.“In the entire medium-range forecast, apart from the HK$150 billion transfer over the two years just mentioned, there are actually no other transfers projected,” Chan told a radio programme. “I will not make this a normal practice.”His assurances follow Wednesday’s budget announcement that the government would withdraw HK$75 billion annually for two years from the Exchange Fund’s investment income to top up the Capital Works Reserve Fund.The move, justified by the Exchange Fund’s record-high investment income of HK$330 billion last year, aims to support the Northern Metropolis and other infrastructure projects.Chan argued that with the fund’s total assets exceeding HK$4.1 trillion, the transfer represented only about half of last year’s investment gains and would not undermine the city’s financial stability or its ability to defend the currency peg.