Residents deposits increased 1.3 percent

According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, money supply sustained growth in March with a stable share of patacas. Currency in circulation dropped 1.9 percent whereas demand deposits rose 1.7 percent.

Resident deposits increased 1.3 percent from the preceding month to MOP533.2 billion, while non-resident deposits rose even faster by 7 percent to MOP273.2 billion.  At the same time, public sector deposits in the banking sector increased 1.7 percent to MOP183.6 billion.

Total deposits with the banking sector increased 2.9 percent from a month earlier to MOP989.9 billion. The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total deposits were 20.9 percent, 49.4 percent, 3.7 percent and 23.8 percent respectively.

Domestic loans to the private sector increased 0.5 percent from last month to MOP420.2 billion. Of this, MOP125.2 billion was MOP, MOP272.2 billion was HKD, MOP1.3 billion was RMB and MOP18.9 billion was USD, representing 29.8 percent, 64.8 percent, 0.3 percent and 4.5 percent of the total respectively.

External loans rose 3.0 percent to MOP392.6 billion.

At the end of March, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector dropped from 59.1 percent at the end of February to 58.6 percent.  The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors also fell from 83.1 percent to 82.1 percent respectively.