Monetary and Financial Statistics – August 2008

According to statistics published today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on a monthly basis, deposits in banks recorded a slight drop. Although domestic credit to the private sector continued to grow, public sector deposits rose at a faster pace, resulting in a marked decline in total domestic credit (domestic credit to the private sector + credit to the public sector – public sector deposits). Money supply
Attributed to the increases of currency in circulation and demand deposits, M1 grew 10.5% month-to-month. Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities rose 0.8%. The sum of these two items, i.e. M2, increased 2.0% to MOP190.1 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 rose 20.5% and 4.9% respectively. In terms of currency structure, the shares of Pataca (MOP) and Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) in M2 stood at 27.8% and 51.8%, down by 0.4 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points over a month ago respectively. Compared with a year earlier, the share of MOP increased by 0.3 percentage points whereas the share of HKD declined by 1.9 percentage points. Deposits
Resident deposits increased by 2.0% month-to-month to MOP185.9 billion; of which, MOP deposits, HKD deposits and other foreign currency deposits rose at respective rates of 0.6%, 1.0% and 6.7%. On the other hand, non-resident deposits amounted to MOP69.4 billion, down 6.9%. As a result, total deposits with Macao banks dropped by 0.6%. The shares of MOP and HKD in total deposits were 20.0% and 45.4% respectively. The value of MOP deposits was MOP51.2 billion, while that of HKD deposits was MOP116.0 billion. Net foreign assets
Net foreign assets held by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) at end-August 2008 reached MOP134.6 billion, up 1.5% month-to-month or 28.3% year-on-year. At the same time, net foreign assets of local banks rose 3.5% from the previous month to MOP92.3 billion.
Domestic credit Domestic credit to the private sector increased 1.0% month-to-month to MOP89.0 billion. With regard to currency denomination, domestic credit to the private sector in MOP and HKD increased 0.3% and 1.8%, to MOP18.0 billion and MOP62.4 billion respectively, while that of other foreign currencies dropped 3.2% to MOP8.6 billion. Public sector deposits placed with banks and the AMCM totalled MOP87.2 billion, equivalent to an increase of MOP2.0 billion from July 2008. Total domestic credit, after deducting public sector deposits, shrank to MOP1.7 billion in August 2008. At end-August 2008, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector dropped by 0.5 percentage points monthto-
month to 44.9% while the ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors stood at 61.3%, down 1.5
percentage points.