Briefs | Macau counts Portuguese traditions as cultural heritage

The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) said it has added 55 more items to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of the city, including several Portuguese traditions. The institute said in a statement that the new items include Portuguese folk dance, the Arraial de São João, several Catholic processions, Macau’s iconic egg tarts (pastéis de nata), and making and painting tiles in the Portuguese style. The announcement says some of the additions were proposed by Macau individuals or communities, and that some had been under consideration by the institute for some years. Specifying those aspects of the intangible cultural heritage of Macau that deserve preservation affords them protection, the announcement by the IC stated. The list of the intangible cultural heritage of Macau now contains 70 items.

Airport passengers plummet 99.7% year-on-year in June

The number of passengers traveling through the Macau International Airport plummeted 99.7% year-on-year to 1,836 in June, the facility’s operator CAM has announced. In June last year, the airport recorded 780,595 passengers. According to a CAM statement this week, passenger movement in the first half of the year dropped 80% to 936,968. In the first half of last year, the number of airport passengers stood at 4.72 million. Macau’s tourism, gaming, retail and other sectors have been severely affected by the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, according to a separate statement issued by the Statistics and Census Service, touchdowns and takeoffs at the single-runway airport dropped 96.2% year-on-year in May.

Macau’s broad money supply rose by 0.7% in May

The broad money supply continued to rebound in May with a stable share of patacas, according to statistics released yesterday by the Monetary Authority of Macao. According to the latest data, the currency in circulation and demand deposits rose by 0.5% and 10.6% respectively in May. On the other hand, quasi-monetary liabilities decreased by 0.3%. The sum of these two items, i.e. broad money supply, rose by 0.7% to 686.8 billion patacas. The shares denominated in pataca, Hong Kong dollar, renminbi and U.S. dollar were 32.3%, 45.6%, 5.9% and 14.2% respectively. Meanwhile, at the end of May, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector decreased from 58.9% at the end of April to 58%. The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors fell from 98% to 97.5%.