Hong Kong's official foreign currency reserve assets amounted to US$182.5 billion at the end of December, the Monetary Authority announced today.

The US$16.6 billion increase in settled foreign currency assets from the previous month was mainly due to the purchase of foreign currencies with Hong Kong dollars.

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets at the end of December 2008 stood at US$184.8 billion, up from US$166 billion the previous month.

Hong Kong is the world's eighth largest holder of foreign currency reserves based on the latest published figures, after the Mainland, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, India, Brazil and Korea.