According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, new small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending approved by Macao banks decreased in the first half of 2015. Concurrently, the utilisation of SME credit in proportion to the credit limit approved by banks dropped when compared with the previous survey period.

New lending approved

In the first half of 2015, new SME credit limit approved by Macao banks totalled MOP18.0 billion, down by 28.3% from the second half year of 2014 or 22.2% from the same period last year. The collateralised ratio, which indicates the proportion of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, was 78.5%, down 3.5 percentage points when compared with the last survey period but up 3.2 percentage points when compared with the same period of 2014.

Credit utilisation

As at end-June 2015, the outstanding value of total SME loans increased 8.8% from end-2014 or 25.2% from a year earlier to MOP65.3 billion. When compared with end-2014, SME loans to “manufacturing”, “restaurants, hotels and similar activities” and “wholesale and retail trade” increased at respective rates of 12.9%, 11.1% and 8.7%, whereas those to “non-monetary financial institutions”, “electricity, gas and water” and “transport, warehouse and communications” dropped 16.8%, 11.6% and 4.4% respectively.

The utilisation rate, defined as the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, dropped 2.0 percentage points from six months ago to 64.7%.

Delinquent loans

At end-June 2015, the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans increased by 43.6% from six months ago to MOP195.8 million. Compared to a year ago, the balance grew 37.5%. The delinquency ratio, a ratio of delinquent loans outstanding balance to total SME loans outstanding, rose 0.07 percentage points from end-2014 or 0.03 percentage points from a year earlier to 0.30%.