The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP132.5 billion (USD16.60 billion) at the end of December 2012. The reserves increased by 0.5% or MOP0.7 billion from the revised value of MOP131.8 billion (USD16.51 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2012 represented 18 times the currency in circulation or 146.5% of Pataca M2 at end-November 2012.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency’s exchange rates against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners, fell by 0.44 points month-to-month and 0.34 points year-on-year to 96.85 in December 2012.