Macao's forex reserves over $18 bln by year-end

Macao's foreign exchange reserves amounted to 18.35 billion U.S. dollars at the end of December in 2009, according to the preliminarily-estimated figures released on Tuesday by the Monetary Authority of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The reserves rose by 0.5 percent from the revised value for the previous month, and when compared with the same period in 2008, the reserves increased by 15.3 percent, the Monetary Authority said.

Macao SAR's foreign exchange reserves at the end of December in 2009 represented 30 times the currency in circulation.

Meanwhile, the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency's exchange rates against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners, dropped by 2.74 points year-on-year to 89.24 in December 2009, according to the Monetary Authority.

Source: Xinhua