The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP163.2 billion (USD20.26 billion) at the end of January 2018. The reserves increased by 0.6% from the revised value of MOP162.3 billion (USD20.17 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-January 2018 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 89.3% of pataca M2 at end-December 2017.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 2.09 points month-to-month and 7.55 points year-on-year to 102.1 in January 2018, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.