According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on a monthly basis, money supply M2 resumed its growth in December. As loans grew at a faster pace than deposits, the loan-to-deposit ratio continued to increase. Money supply Currency in circulation and demand deposits increased 3.1% and 4.3% respectively. M1 thus grew 4.1% when compared with the previous month. Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities also rose by 0.7%. M2 therefore increased by 1.2% to MOP243.2 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 rose 13.4% and 14.6% respectively. The share of Pataca (MOP) in M2 stood at 28.0%, down 0.2 percentage points over a month ago and a year earlier. The share of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) in M2 was 54.7%, down 0.1 percentage point month-to-month but up 1.1 percentage points year-on-year. Deposits Resident deposits grew 1.1% from the previous month to MOP237.6 billion. Of which, MOP deposits, HKD deposits and other foreign currency deposits increased at respective rates of 0.2%, 1.0% and 3.0%. Concurrently, non-resident deposits grew 2.1% to MOP79.4 billion and public sector deposits with the banking sector increased 12.2% to MOP22.9 billion. As a result, total deposits with the banking sector grew 2.0% from a month earlier to MOP340.0 billion. The shares of MOP and HKD in total deposits were 23.7% and 45.9% respectively. Loans Domestic loans to the private sector grew at a significantly faster pace. Their value increased 4.9% on a monthly basis to MOP130.5 billion. Among which, MOP37.5 billion was MOP-denominated and MOP83.8 billion was denominated in HKD, representing 28.8% and 64.2% of the total respectively. Loans to “restaurants, hotels and similar”, “personal housing loans” and loans to “gaming” increased quarter-to-quarter at respective rates of 20.9%, 11.3% and 7.5% whereas those to “manufacturing industries” dropped 7.8%. Meanwhile, external loans increased 1.0% to MOP115.3 billion; of which, loans denominated in MOP and HKD accounted for 0.4% (MOP0.4 billion) and 41.3% (MOP47.6 billion) respectively. Loan-to-deposit ratios As domestic loans to the private sector grew faster than resident deposits, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at end-December 2010 rose 1.4 percentage points month-to-month to 50.1%. The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors stood at 72.3%, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous month.
