Cecilia [email protected] Approved credit limit by local banks for new small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the first half of 2016 decreased by 51.8 per cent compared to the second half of 2015, totalling MOP9.9 billion (US$1.24 billion), according to statistics released on last Friday by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM). The amount is also a decrease of 44.8 per cent when compared to the same period last year. The proportion of the credit limit to tangible assets pledged, also referred as the collateralised ratio, was 81.5 per cent, down 201 percentage points when compared to the second half of 2015, but up by 31 percentage points when compared to the first half of 2015. The outstanding value of total SME loans, meanwhile, rose by 1.5 per cent from the second half of 2015, to MOP67.7 billion, representing a 3.8 per cent increase from the same period a year earlier. By industry, loans to “manufacturing” and “construction and public works” grew by 28.1 per cent and 6.0 per cent respectively; while loans to “transport, warehouse and communications”, “wholesale and retail trade” and “restaurants, hotels and similar activities” decreased by 13.3 per cent, 9.4 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. The proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, also known as the utilisation rate, was 61.7 per cent, an increase of 0.5 per cent compared to six months ago. Meanwhile, a fall of 16.3 per cent was recorded in the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans half-on-half, totalling MOP306.4 million. However, the balance grew by 56.5 per cent when compared to the same period a year ago. The ratio of outstanding delinquent loans to total outstanding SME loans, referred to as the delinquency ratio, went down by 0.10 per cent half-on-half to 0.45 per cent.
—
