According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, newly approved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit continued to expand in the first half of 2019.  Concurrently, the outstanding balance of SME loans also registered growth and the share of SME loans to major industries remained stable.

New lending approved

In the first half of 2019, new SME credit limit approved by Macao banks totalled MOP17.0 billion, up 28.8% from the second half of 2018 or 60.4% from the same period of 2018.  The collateralised ratio, which indicates the proportion of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, was 69.2%, down 6.2 percentage points when compared with the last survey period or 8.2 percentage points when compared with the same period of 2018.

Credit utilisation

As at end-June 2019, the outstanding balance of total SME loans increased 4.9% from end-2018 or 12.6% from a year earlier to MOP92.2 billion.  Compared to the last survey period, SME loans to “construction and public works” and “information technology” increased at respective rates of 12.7% and 7.6% whereas those to “restaurants, hotels and similar” and “manufacturing industries” dropped 16.2% and 1.1% respectively.

The utilisation rate, defined as the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, decreased 0.3 percentage points from six months ago, but rose 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 79.7%. 

Delinquent loans

At end-June 2019, the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans grew 8.0% from six months ago but dropped 16.2% from the preceding year to MOP490.4 million.  The delinquency ratio, a ratio of delinquent loans outstanding balance to total SME loans outstanding, stood at 0.53%.  The ratio edged up 0.02 percentage points when compared with end-2018 but declined 0.18 percentage points when compared with end-June 2018.