In 2014, the current account continued to register a large surplus at MOP169.5 billion (US$21.2 billion), which AMCM explains by net service exports, according to the preliminary data of the Macau Balance of Payments (BOP) released yesterday by the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM).
The BOP is a statistical statement that summarises the external transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. However, that amount of 2014 is MOP5.5 bln short compared to the MOP175 bln surplus registered in 2013.
In addition, last year, BOP registered reserve assets in the financial account, which record the net change in the SARs foreign exchange reserves held by AMCM, at MOP0.62 billion (US$77.67 million) in comparison to the deficit in 2013 that totalled MOP4.57 billion.
At the same time, the growth in foreign financial assets of residents and government led to a net increase of MOP97.1 billion of the financial non-reserve assets.
Concerning the merchandise trade, the deficit enlarged to MOP98.2 billion in 2014 from MOP85.4 billion in 2013, which was explained by a much larger basis of imports than exports. However, the document released yesterday by AMCM notes that exports of goods leaped by 19.7 per cent year-on-year, while imports of goods went up 15.5 per cent.
With regard to services, imports and exports declined by 10.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively, although services continue to generate an increasing surplus – up from MOP333.4 billion in 2013 to MOP339.4 billion in 2014.
In terms of primary income which shows cross-border flows the increase in income earned by Macau residents on portfolio investments and other investments abroad caused a reduction in net outflow to MOP62.3 billion in 2014 from MOP65.3 billion in the previous year.
Secondary income, which includes inflows and outflows of personal transfers, and donations, among others, resulted in an outflow of MOP9.4 billion, which is an increase from MOP1.8 billion in 2013.
The AMCM document also reveals that the net inflow of direct investment dipped to MOP7.5 billion in 2014 from MOP19.4 billion in 2013. At the same time as the external securities investment from the territory was reduced by MOP3.6 billion in 2014 in contrast with the sharp increase of MOP48.0 billion in 2013, portfolio investment generated a lower net outflow in 2014 (MOP44.8 billion) than in 2013 (MOP99.4 billion).
