Macao's broad money supply rebounds in March

MACAO, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Macao's broad money supply rebounded by 1.5 percent month on month to 726.8 billion patacas (about 89.9 billion U.S. dollars) in March, the special administrative region's (SAR) monetary watchdog said on Friday.

According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, currency in circulation dropped 1.2 percent, whereas demand deposits rose 4.6 percent. M1 thus increased 2.9 percent from one month earlier.

Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities grew 1.3 percent. The sum of these two items, broad money supply or M2, rebounded 1.5 percent to 726.8 billion patacas.

On an annual basis, M1 kept virtually stable, while M2 rose 5.9 percent.

The shares of pataca, Hong Kong dollar, renminbi and U.S. dollar in M2 were 34.9 percent, 44.9 percent, 8.0 percent and 10.0 percent, respectively.

According to the official data, resident deposits increased 1.6 percent from the preceding month to 706.0 billion patacas, while non-resident deposits rose 3.4 percent to 299.2 billion patacas.

On the other hand, public sector deposits with the banking sector decreased 0.8 percent to 228.1 billion patacas.

As a result, total deposits in the banking sector grew 1.6 percent from a month earlier to 1,233.3 billion patacas. (1 pataca equals 0.12 U.S. dollars)