Hong Kong Ranks 6th in Global Forex Market

Hong Kong remained sixth in the global foreign exchange market, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said Wednesday, citing the Bank for International Settlements triennial survey.

If transactions in the over-the-counter interest rate derivatives market are included, Hong Kong's ranking moved up from eighth in 2007 to seventh this year.

In terms of dollar amount increases in foreign exchange trading activity, Hong Kong posted a 56.6 billion U.S. dollars increase and ranked fourth after the UK, the U.S. and Japan.

The Monetary Authority said Hong Kong's results were broadly in line with global trends.

Hong Kong's average daily net turnover of foreign exchange transactions grew by 31.3 percent to 237.6 billion U.S. dollars compared with the results of 2007.

Average daily net turnover of outright forwards rose by 117.6 percent to 32 billion U.S. dollars, while that of foreign exchange swaps increased by 20.5 percent to 147 billion U.S. dollars.

Hong Kong dollar against U.S. dollar remained the most heavily traded currency pair although its share fell from 40.5 percent to 29.4 percent, mainly because of substantial increases in other currency pair transactions.