According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, broad money supply continued to fall in March. Meanwhile, both resident deposits and loans decreased from a month earlier.

Money supply

Currency in circulation and demand deposits dropped 1.5% and 1.7% respectively. M1 thus went down by 1.6% from one month earlier. Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities fell 0.1%.  The sum of these two items, i.e. M2, decreased 0.3% to MOP686.3 billion.  On an annual basis, M1 and M2 fell 1.6% and 1.9% respectively.  The shares of pataca (MOP), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), renminbi (RMB) and United States dollar (USD) in M2 were 36.1%, 49.4%, 5.8% and 7.0% respectively.

Deposits

Resident deposits dropped 0.3% from the preceding month to MOP665.9 billion while non-resident deposits also decreased 0.8% to MOP380.7 billion.  Meanwhile, public sector deposits with the banking sector fell 0.6% to MOP263.1 billion.  As a result, total deposits in the banking sector dropped 0.5% from a month earlier to MOP1,309.6 billion.  The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total deposits were 19.1%, 51.0%, 6.2% and 22.0% respectively.

Loans

Domestic loans to the private sector decreased by 0.7% from a month ago to MOP558.2 billion. Analysed by economic sector, “transport, warehouse and communications” and “restaurants, hotels and similar” increased at respective rates of  9.7% and 3.0% compared with a quarter ago, whereas “wholesale and retail trade” and  “construction and public works”  fell 7.5% and 5.2%  respectively. On the other hand, external loans rose 6.8% to MOP794.4 billion. As a result, total loans to the private sector went up by 3.6% from a month earlier to MOP1,352.5 billion.  The shares of MOP, HKD, RMB and USD in total loans were 15.8%, 37.1%, 16.6% and 27.4% respectively.

Operating ratios

At end-March, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector fell from 60.3% at end-February to 60.1%. On the other hand, the ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors increased from 99.2% to 103.3%.  The one-month and three-month current assets to liabilities ratios stood at 72.5% and 69.1% respectively.  Concurrently, the non-performing loan ratio decreased from 0.75% at end-February to 0.74%.