Central Bank of China

PRESS RELEASE Release Date: May 24, 2002




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Financial Conditions (April 2002)

Monetary Aggregates For the month of April 2002, the annual growth rates of the monetary aggregates M1A, M1B and M2, measured on a daily average basis, were 6.53%, 19.29%, and 4.61%, respectively. All of which edged higher than those recorded in the previous month mainly because of the lower base of the corresponding month of the previous year, the rising stock market prices, as well as the sustained foreign capital inflows. In addition, the M2 aggregate plus bond funds held by the general public posted an annual growth rate of 6.71% for the month.

Deposits and Loans & Investments At the end of April, the annual growth rate of total deposits in major financial institutions, including monetary institutions and the Postal Savings System, rose to 4.41% from 4.31% at the end of the previous month. The negative growth of total loans and investments also narrowed from an annualized "2.39% at the end of the previous month to "1.90% mainly because of the increase in claims on government and the lower base of the corresponding month of the previous year. If loans and investments extended by life insurance companies and investment and trust companies, major financial institutions' reclassifying non-accrual loans and writing-off bad loans, as well as funds raised directly from financial markets were taken into account, the total funds raised by non-financial sectors showed an annual growth rate of 2.83% for the month.

Call-loan Rate and Reserve Conditions For the month as a whole, the fund condition in the banking system still remained easy and the average free reserves of depository institutions and the Postal Savings System were NT$ 5.2 billion. The average overnight call-loan rate for the month slightly declined from 2.273% in the previous month to 2.265%.

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