According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, money supply sustained its growth momentum in March with a stable share of patacas.  On the other hand, both resident deposits and loans grew from a month earlier.

Money supply

Currency in circulation dropped 1.9% whereas demand deposits rose 1.7%. M1 thus increased 1.0% from one month earlier.  On the other hand, quasi-monetary liabilities grew 1.2%.  The sum of these two items, i.e. M2, increased 1.2% to MOP547.2 billion. On an annual basis, M1 and M2 grew 6.3% and 14.4% respectively.  The shares of pataca (MOP), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), renminbi (RMB) and United States dollar (USD) in M2 were 31.7%, 52.9%, 3.9% and 9.5% respectively.

Deposits

Resident deposits increased 1.3% from the preceding month to MOP533.2 billion while non-resident deposits grew even faster by 7.0% to MOP273.2 billion.  At the same time, public sector deposits with the banking sector also increased 1.7% to MOP183.6 billion.  As a result, total deposits with the banking sector increased 2.9% from a month earlier to MOP989.9 billion. The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total deposits were 20.9%, 49.4%, 3.7% and 23.8% respectively.

Loans

Domestic loans to the private sector increased 0.5% from a month ago to MOP420.2 billion. Among which, MOP125.2 billion was MOP-denominated, MOP272.2 billion was denominated in HKD, MOP1.3 billion was denominated in RMB and MOP18.9 billion was denominated in USD, representing 29.8%, 64.8%, 0.3% and 4.5% of the total respectively.  Analysed by economic sector, “information technology”, “electricity, gas and water” and “construction and public works” increased at respective rates of 30.8%, 12.6% and 5.0% compared with a quarter ago, whereas “transport, warehouse and communications” and “education” dropped 11.5% and 4.0% respectively.

External loans rose 3.0% to MOP392.6 billion; of which, loans denominated in MOP, HKD, RMB and USD accounted for 1.8% (MOP7.0 billion), 26.1% (MOP102.6 billion), 11.0% (MOP43.2 billion) and 54.6% (MOP214.5 billion)  respectively.

Operating ratios

At end-March, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector dropped from 59.1% at end-February to 58.6%.  The ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors also fell from 83.1% to 82.1%. The one-month and three-month current assets to liabilities ratios stayed at relatively high levels of 55.5% and 58.8% respectively.  In addition, the non-performing loan ratio remained virtually stable at 0.2%.