Deposits record slight decrease

Macau’s broad money supply retreated in February, and resident deposits also declined, the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) said yesterday. Currency in circulation and demand deposits grew by 6 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

According to data released by AMCM, resident deposits dropped 0.7 percent from the preceding month to MOP589.9 billion while non-resident deposits also fell 1.1 percent to MOP254.7 billion.

Public sector deposits within the banking sector increased 4.7 percent to MOP197.4 billion, with the result that total deposits in the banking sector increased 0.2 percent from a month earlier to MOP1,042.0 billion. 

The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total deposits were 20.1 percent, 51.8 percent, 3.7 percent and 21.5 percent respectively.

Domestic loans to the private sector grew 0.8 percent from last month to MOP462.4 billion. Among those deposits, MOP138.2 billion was MOP-denominated, MOP301.2 billion was denominated in HKD, MOP0.3 billion was denominated in RMB and MOP19.2 billion was denominated in USD.

On the other hand, external loans decreased 0.1 percent to MOP445.1 billion.

At end-February, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector edged up from 58.6 percent at end-January to 58.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the loan-to-deposit ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors rose marginally from 87.0 percent to 87.1 percent.

Both the one-month and three-month current assets-to-liabilities ratios remained relatively high, at 55.4 percent and 57.4 percent respectively.