The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP163.6 billion (USD20.28 billion) at the end of December 2018. The reserves increased by 2.9% from the revised value of MOP158.9 billion (USD19.72 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2018 represented 10 times the currency in circulation or 83.9% of pataca M2 at end-November 2018.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.22 points month-to-month but rose 2.61 points year-on-year to 106.8 in December 2018, 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.