H.K. forex reserves up to $107.5 bil. in Dec

HONG KONG, Jan. 8 Kyodo

Hong Kong has become the world's third largest holder of foreign currency reserves with assets amounting to $107.5 billion at the end of December, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said Monday.

The December figure was up from the $104.2 billion in November.

The $3.3 billion increase was mainly due to evaluation gains on foreign currency investments and increase in currency notes outstanding, the territory's de facto central bank said in a statement.

The figures mean Hong Kong has taken over Taiwan's ranking as the world's third largest foreign currency reserves holder, after Japan and mainland China.

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves slipped to $106.742 billion at the end of December.

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