The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP155.7 billion (USD19.49billion) at the end of December 2016. The reserves increased by 2.8% from the revised value of MOP151.4 billion (USD18.95 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2016 represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 97.3% of Pataca M2 at end-November 2016.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 1.67 points month-to-month and 2.91 points year-on-year to 110.20 in December 2016, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca advanced against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.