The total number of personal credit cards issued by banks in Macau continued to rise in the first quarter, but both credit card turnover and repayments recorded year-on-year declines, the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) said in a statement today.
Macau's economy has been severely affected by the COVID-19 epidemic since late January.
The total number of personal credit cards issued by banks in Macau stood at 1.44 million at the end of March, an increase of 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 8.3 percent year-on-year.
The number of pataca, Hong Kong dollar and yuan cards increased 7.4 percent, 3.2percent and 12.8 percent year-on-year respectively.
The credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macau reached 40.9 billion patacas at the end of March, up by 3.1 percent quarter-on-quarter and 9.8 percent year-on-year.
The credit card receivables at the end of March amounted to 2.2 billion patacas, of which rollover represented 39.4 percent of credit card receivables.
The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, rose 0.9 percentage points to 2.5 percent when compared with the end of last year.
In the first quarter, credit card turnover totalled 4.6 billion patacas, a drop of 27.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 19.0 percent year-on-year.
Credit card repayments, including payments for interest and fees,decreased 11.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 9.6 percent year-on-year to 5.5 billion patacas in the first quarter.
