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 July 2018. The reserves increased by 2.7% from the revised value of MOP152.8 billion (USD18.91 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-July 2018 represented 10 times the currency in circulation or 82.3% of pataca M2 at end-June 2018.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 1.56 points month-to-month but fell 0.88 points year-on-year to 104.8 in July 2018, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of pataca grew against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners on a monthly basis but dropped on an annual basis.