Foreign exchange reserves and nominal effective exchange rate index for the pataca – August 2016

The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP155.8 billion (USD19.50 billion) at the end of August 2016. The reserves increased by 0.4% from the revised value of MOP155.2 billion (USD19.43 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-August 2016 represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 103.2% of Pataca M2 at end-July 2016. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca fell 0.84 points month-to-month and 0.17 points year-on-year to 105.54 in August 2016, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca dropped against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.