The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP166.8 billion (USD20.63 billion) at the end of February 2019. The reserves increased by 1.6% from the revised value of MOP164.3 billion (USD20.32 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-February 2019 represented 9 times the currency in circulation or 81.1% of pataca M2 at end-January 2019.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.02 points month-to-month but rose 4.86 points year-on-year to 105.6 in February 2019, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners on a monthly basis but increased on an annual basis.