The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP156.8 billion (USD19.62 billion) at the end of January 2017. The reserves increased by 0.7% from the revised value of MOP155.7 billion (USD19.49 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-January 2017 represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 96.2% of Pataca M2 at end-December 2016.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.60 points month-to-month and rose 1.96 points year-on-year to 109.6 in January 2017, 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.