MACAO, June 15 (Xinhua) — The preliminary estimate of Macao’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to 217.8 billion patacas (about 26.98 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of May, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR)’s monetary watchdog said on Thursday.
The latest statistics from the Monetary Authority of Macao showed that the reserves increased 2.0 percent from the revised value of 213.4 billion patacas (about 26.40 billion dollars) for the previous month.
Macao’s foreign exchange reserves as of the end of May represented 10 times the currency in circulation, or 86.4 percent of the pataca broad money supply (M2) at the end of April.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 1.05 points month-on-month and 0.58 points year-on-year to 102.1 in May.