The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP178.3 billion (USD22.22 billion) at the end of December 2019. The reserves increased by 4.3% from the revised value of MOP170.9 billion (USD21.20 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2019 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 85.6% of pataca M2 at end-November 2019.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.01 point month-to-month but rose 0.94 points year-on-year to 107.7 in December 2019, 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.