Macau’s broad money supply continued to grow by 5.1 percent month-on-month to 717.9 billion patacas in December, the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) announced yesterday.
According to statistics released by Macau’s quasi-central bank, currency in circulation and demand deposits rose 1.7 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively. M1 thus increased by 8.2 percent from a month earlier.
Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities rose 4.8 percent. The sum of these two items, broad money supply or M2, grew by 5.1 percent to 717.9 billion patacas.
On an annual basis, M1 dropped 4.1 percent, whereas M2 grew 4.4 percent.
The shares of pataca, Hong Kong dollar, renminbi and US dollar in M2 were 38.6 percent, 41.6 percent, 8.2 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.
According to the official data, resident deposits increased 5.2 percent from the preceding month to 697.4 billion patacas, while non-resident deposits rose 4.2 percent to 321.7 billion patacas.
Public sector deposits with the banking sector decreased 2.4 percent to 242.5 billion patacas.
As a result, total deposits in the banking sector grew 3.4 percent from a month earlier to 1,261.7 billion patacas.
Meanwhile, the regulator said in a statement yesterday that it has raised its base from by 0.25 percentage points to 5 percent, the eighth increase since March 2022 and the highest increase since December 2007.
The Fed in the US and Hong Kong Monetary Authority also raised their base rates this week.
Macau’s pataca is indirectly pegged to the greenback through its Hong Kong dollar peg.
– Xinhua, MPD
