The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP132.9 billion (USD16.64 billion) at the end of July 2012. The reserves fell by 1.2% or MOP1.6 billion from the revised value of MOP134.5 billion (USD16.84 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-July 2012 represented 19 times the currency in circulation or 158.0% of Pataca M2 at end-June 2012.

In response to the significant changes of Macao’s trade pattern in recent years, the Monetary Authority of Macao revised the trade weights of the effective exchange rate index for the pataca and re-set January 2010 as the new base period (Jan 2010=100). In July 2012, the revised index stood at 99.19, up by 0.48 points month-to-month and 4.56 points year-on-year.

Note: For methodology of revision, please refer to the feature article in Macao Monetary Research Bulletin, Issue No. 24.

For enquiry, please contact:

Research and Statistics Department, Monetary Authority of Macao (Tel: 83952532; Fax: 28353042)