The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP159.5 billion (USD19.73 billion) at the end of August 2018. The reserves increased by 1.7% from the revised value of MOP156.9 billion (USD19.41 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-August 2018 represented 10 times the currency in circulation or 81.2% of pataca M2 at end-July 2018.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 0.87 points month-to-month and 1.34 points year-on-year to 105.7 in August 2018, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of pataca grew against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.