MSAR’s foreign exchange reserves drop in October

The preliminary estimate of the city’s foreign exchange reserves reveals a 0.3 per cent month-on-month drop, at MOP154.4 billion (US$19.33 billion) in October compared to MOP154.9 billion in September. The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) has announced that the foreign exchange reserves in the city in October represented 12 times the currency in circulation or 98.3 per cent of the pataca M2 in September 2016.
Meanwhile, the city saw an increase of 1.15 per cent month-on-month and 1.52 percentage points year-on-year to 106.91 in the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca for the month. AMCM explained that the rise in the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca is due to the exchange rate of the pataca against the currencies of Macau’s major trading partners.