The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP156.9 billion (USD19.41 billion) at the end of March 2018. The reserves decreased by 2.9% from the revised value of MOP161.6 billion (USD20.05 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-March 2018 represented 10 times the currency in circulation or 82.9% of pataca M2 at end-February 2018.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.25 points month-to-month and 8.51 points year-on-year to 100.5 in March 2018, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.