The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP131.4 billion (USD16.44 billion) at the end of December 2014. The reserves increased by 2.7% from the revised value of MOP127.9 billion (USD16.02 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2014 represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 105.2% of Pataca M2 at end-November 2014.

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, rose 0.99 points month-to-month and 4.91 points year-on-year to 101.62 in December 2014.