The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP200.8 billion (USD25.15 billion) at the end of December 2020. The reserves increased by 3.9% from the revised value of MOP193.2 billion (USD24.20 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2020 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 85.3% of pataca M2 at end-November 2020.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 1.28 points month-to-month and 5.35 points year-on-year to 102.4 in December 2020, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.