According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, newly approved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit rebounded in the first half of 2021.  In the meantime, the outstanding balance of SME loans rose while the share of SME loans to major industries remained stable.

New lending approved

In the first half of 2021, new SME credit limit approved by Macao banks totalled MOP19.4 billion, up 137.1% from the second half of 2020 or 26.8% from the same period of 2020.  The collateralised ratio, which indicates the proportion of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, was 78.8%, up 20.4 percentage points when compared with the last survey period or 30.0 percentage points when compared with the same period of 2020.

Credit utilisation

As at end-June 2021, the outstanding balance of SME loans increased 8.3% from end-2020 or 6.4% from a year earlier to MOP94.5 billion. Compared to the last survey period, outstanding SME loans to “manufacturing industries” and “wholesale and retail trade” increased at respective rates of 49.2% and 13.9% whereas those to “restaurants, hotels and similar” dropped 8.7%.

The utilisation rate, defined as the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, fell 0.6 percentage points from six months ago or 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier to 82.4%. 

Delinquent loans

At end-June 2021, the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans grew 13.4% from six months ago or 141.5% from the preceding year to MOP551.6 million.  The delinquency ratio, the fraction of delinquent loans to total SME loans outstanding, rose 0.03 percentage points from end-2020 or 0.33 percentage points from end-June 2020 to 0.58%.