The Hong Kong Monetary Authority Wednesday announced the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to 226.9 billion U.S. dollars at the end of September.

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of September stood at 229.2 billion U.S. dollars, said the authority.

Based on the latest published figures, Hong Kong is the world's 7th largest holder of foreign currency reserves, after the Chinese Mainland, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, India and South Korea.

The total foreign currency reserve assets of 226.9 billion U.S. dollars represent about nine times the currency in circulation or 50 percent of Hong Kong dollar M3.