Economy | Slight money supply growth in December

According to statistics released this week by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the broad money supply continued to grow in December 2016. Total deposits increased while total loans declined, meaning that the overall loan-to-deposit ratio of the banking sector declined from a month earlier.

Meanwhile, the non-performing loan ratio, an indicator of bank asset quality, remained relatively stable in December.

The currency in circulation for that month grew 1 percent from November while demand deposits dropped by approximately 8 percent. Quasi-monetary liabilities in Macau rose 3.8 percent in the same period.

In terms of money supply, the shares denominated in MOP, HKD, RMB and USD were 30.6 percent, 54.3 percent, 4.2 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.

Resident deposits increased 2.6 percent from the preceding month to MOP518.9 billion while non-resident deposits dropped 6.2 percent to MOP248.3 billion, according to the Monetary Authority. Additionally, public sector deposits with the banking sector increased 6.2 percent to MOP174.8 billion.

As a result, total deposits within the banking sector increased 0.7 percent from a month earlier to MOP942.1 billion. The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total deposits were 21.7 percent, 47.4 percent, 4.5 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively.

Domestic loans to the private sector increased 1.8 percent from a month ago to MOP422.7 billion. MOP123.9 billion was MOP-denominated, MOP277.3 billion was denominated in HKD, MOP3.3 billion was denominated in RMB and MOP17 billion was denominated in USD. These represented 29.3 percent, 65.6 percent, 0.8 percent and 4 percent of the total, respectively.

Analyzed by economic sector, loans to “gaming” and “electricity, gas and water” increased at the respective rates of 1.3 percent and 0.7 percent compared to the previous quarter, whereas “information technology”, “manufacturing industries” and “restaurants, hotels and similar” dropped by 9.1 percent, 8.4 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.