Macao's new residential mortgage loans fall 24.8 pct in October

MACAO, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The new approvals of Macao's residential mortgage loans (RMLs) fell whereas those of commercial real estate loans (CRELs) rose month-on-month in October, the special administrative region's monetary watchdog said on Tuesday.

According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the new RMLs approved by Macao banks in October fell by 24.8 percent month-on-month to 883 million patacas (109.8 million U.S. dollars).

The new RMLs to residents, representing 98.3 percent of the total, decreased by 24.3 percent to 868.08 million patacas. The non-resident component dropped to 14.92 million patacas.

The new CRELs increased 1.1 percent monthly to 1.15 billion patacas. Within this total, new CRELs to residents occupied 98.6 percent.

In October, the outstanding value of RMLs fell 0.3 percent from the previous month, and 2.8 percent from a year earlier, to 231.1 billion patacas, attributable to the repayment of loans with a large denomination.

The outstanding value of CRELs was 160.3 billion patacas, which dropped by 0.2 percent from the preceding month, or 2.3 percent from a year ago.

At the end of October, the delinquency ratio for RMLs stood at 1.0 percent, which went up by 0.1 percentage points from a month ago or 0.5 percentage points over a year earlier.

The delinquency ratio for CRELs was 2.5 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from a month ago, or 1.7 percentage points from the end of October 2022. (1 pataca equals 0.12 U.S. dollars)