The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP152.7 billion (USD19.02 billion) at the end of May 2017. The reserves decreased by 0.9% from the revised value of MOP154.1 billion (USD19.24 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-May 2017 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 87.9% of pataca M2 at end-April 2017.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.89 points month-to-month but rose 2.31 points year-on-year to 107.7 in May 2017, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners on a monthly basis but increased on an annual basis.