Macao's broad money supply continues to grow in January

MACAO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Macao's broad money supply continued to grow by 0.9 percent month on month to 724.1 billion patacas (about 89.6 billion U.S. dollars) in January, the special administrative region's (SAR) monetary watchdog said on Monday.

According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, currency in circulation and demand deposits rose 6.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. M1 thus increased by 5.2 percent from one month earlier.

Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities rose 0.4 percent. The sum of these two items, broad money supply or M2, grew by 0.9 percent to 724.1 billion patacas.

On an annual basis, M1 dropped 2.2 percent, whereas M2 grew 4.6 percent.

The shares of pataca, Hong Kong dollar, renminbi and U.S. dollar in M2 were 36.5 percent, 42.7 percent, 8.4 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

According to the official data, resident deposits increased 0.7 percent from the preceding month to 702.3 billion patacas, while non-resident deposits rose 2.0 percent to 328.1 billion patacas.

On the other hand, public sector deposits with the banking sector decreased 6.0 percent to 228.1 billion patacas.

As a result, total deposits in the banking sector fell 0.3 percent from a month earlier to 1,258.5 billion patacas. (1 pataca equals 0.12 U.S. dollar)