According to the statistics released today (26 June) by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on 31 December 2023, investment of Macao residents (including individuals, the government and other legal entities but excluding Macao’s foreign exchange reserves) in securities issued by unrelated non-residents reached MOP1,104.5 billion at current market value, representing a rise of 3.0% and 9.7% when compared with end-June 2023 and end-2022 respectively. Among the various instruments of portfolio investment, equity securities (including mutual funds and investment trust units), long-term debt securities and short-term debt securities were valued at MOP335.3 billion, MOP693.8 billion and MOP75.5 billion respectively. As compared with a year ago, the market values of equity securities and long-term debt securities increased by 4.4% and 16.5% whereas that of short-term debt securities decreased by 16.4%.

By geographical distribution, the Asian region continued to occupy the largest share of Macao residents’ external portfolio investment, at 46.4%. The rest was mainly placed in North America (19.6%), Europe (15.9%), the North Atlantic and Caribbean (14.4%) and Oceania (1.6%).

Investment in securities issued by Mainland Chinese entities, including those securities listed on non-Mainland exchanges, continued to assume the leading position, occupying 28.5% of local residents’ portfolio investment outside Macao. Its market value decreased by 3.7% from end-2022 to MOP314.6 billion. Of which, the investment consisted of MOP98.2 billion in equity securities, MOP185.0 billion in long-term debt securities and MOP31.4 billion in short-term debt securities, taking up 29.3%, 26.7% and 41.7% of the respective total. On the other hand, the share of investment in securities issued by Hong Kong SAR entities increased from 10.7% to 10.8%; the corresponding market value increased by 10.0% to MOP118.9 billion, of which equity securities and long-term debt securities amounted to MOP37.6 billion and MOP57.9 billion respectively.

The bulk of investment in North America was placed in the United States. The market value of Macao residents’ investment in US securities increased by 26.0% from end-2022 to MOP187.6 billion while its share in total external portfolio investment rose from 14.8% to 17.0%.

Investment in European securities rose by 1.9 percentage points to 15.9% in share and by 25.1% to MOP175.2 billion in market value from end-2022. Among the European countries, the portfolio investment in Ireland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom took up larger portions, standing at MOP41.6 billion, MOP40.9 billion and MOP33.7 billion respectively.

The market value of Macao residents’ portfolio investment in the North Atlantic and Caribbean increased by 0.5% from end-2022 to MOP158.9 billion whereas its share in total external securities investment reduced from 15.7% to 14.4%; of which, the market value of portfolio investment in the British Virgin Islands rose by 2.1% to MOP79.1 billion.

The market value of Macao residents’ investment in Belt and Road Initiative countries (excluding China) increased by 14.6% from end-2022 to MOP103.9 billion, equivalent to 9.4% of total external portfolio investment. On the other hand, the market value of portfolio investment in Portuguese-speaking countries was MOP900.8 million, which was placed in securities issued by entities in Portugal and Brazil.

The compilation of Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS), jointly conducted by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) and the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), follows the methodology advocated by the International Monetary Fund.