Forex reserves climb to MOP217.8b by end-May

The Monetary Authority of Macao announced yesterday that its preliminary estimate of the city’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP217.8 billion at the end of May, a 2.0% increase from last month’s revised value of MOP213.4. Macau’s foreign exchange reserves at end-May represented 10 times the currency in circulation, or 86.4% of pataca M2 at end-April. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 1.05 points month-on-month and 0.58 points year-on-year to 102.1 in May, implying that, overall, the exchange rate of the pataca grew against the currencies of Macau’s major trading partners.