According to the statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on 31 December 2017, investment of Macao residents (including individuals, the government and other legal entities but excluding Macao’s foreign exchange reserves) in securities issued by unrelated non-residents reached MOP662.9 billion at current market value, representing a rise of 13.8% from end-June 2017 or 36.8% from end-2016. Among the various instruments of portfolio investment, equity securities (including mutual funds and investment trust units), long-term debt securities and short-term debt securities were valued at MOP240.4 billion, MOP393.3 billion and MOP29.2 billion respectively. As compared with end-2016, equity securities, long-term debt securities and short-term debt securities rose by 30.8%, 37.6% and 95.4% respectively.
By geographical distribution, the Asian region continued to occupy the largest share of Macao residents’ external portfolio investment, at 59.9%. The rest was mainly placed in the North Atlantic and Caribbean (15.1%), Europe (11.9%), North America (10.5%) and Oceania (2.2%).
Investment in securities issued by Mainland Chinese entities, including those securities listed on non-Mainland exchanges, continued to assume the leading position, occupying 43.1% of local residents’ portfolio investment outside Macao. Its market value increased by 52.5% from end-2016 to MOP285.6 billion. The investment consisted of MOP67.6 billion in equity securities, MOP198.4 billion in long-term debt securities and MOP19.6 billion in short-term debt securities, taking up 28.1%, 50.4% and 67.4% of the respective total. Meanwhile, the share of investment in securities issued by Hong Kong entities fell from 13.6% to 12.7%, yet the corresponding market value rose by 27.4% to MOP83.9 billion, of which equity securities and long-term debt securities amounted to MOP47.6 billion and MOP31.1 billion respectively.
Macao residents’ portfolio investment in the North Atlantic and Caribbean continued to increase. The market value of investment in this region rose by 37.8% from end-2016 to MOP100.1 billion, whereas its share in the total investment abroad slightly increased from 15.0% to 15.1%; of which, the market value of portfolio investment in the British Virgin Islands grew by 52.5% to MOP50.0 billion.
Investment in European securities dropped by 0.4 percentage points in share from end-2016 to 11.9% while its market value grew by 32.1% to MOP78.7 billion. Among the European countries, portfolio investment in the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Switzerland took up larger portions, which was valued at MOP18.5 billion, MOP15.9 billion and MOP8.7 billion respectively.
The bulk of investment in North America was placed in the United States. The market value of Macao residents’ investment in US securities rose by 35.0% from end-2016 to MOP63.1 billion but its share in the total portfolio investment abroad dropped from 9.7% to 9.5%. Among which, the investment in US mutual funds and investment trust units grew by 47.1% to MOP18.5 billion, assuming the top position in this investment category.
The market value of Macao residents’ investment in countries along the “Belt and Road” (excluding Mainland China) rose by 22.6% from end-2016 to MOP21.4 billion, equivalent to 3.2% of the total portfolio investment abroad. Meanwhile, the market value of portfolio investment in Portuguese-speaking countries was MOP91.0 million, which was placed in securities issued by entities in Brazil and Portugal.
The compilation of Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS), jointly conducted by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) and the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), follows the methodology advocated by the International Monetary Fund.