"I don't think the Hong Kong dollar is overvalued. If it ain't broke, don't fix it" said US financier George Soros, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong on 20 September, 2001. Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam also defended Hong Kong’s currency link to the US dollar, saying that it has not undermined Hong Kong’s competitiveness. Mr Yam said statistics show that the real exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar has depreciated 12 per cent over the past five years.