MACAO - Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in October increased slightly by 0.1 percent month-to-month to an equivalent of 165.1 billion patacas ($20.63 billion), according to the figures released on Friday by Monetary Authority of Macao.

The figures also indicated that 25 percent of the domestic loans was pataca-denominated, while 66.2 percent was denominated in Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans increased by 0.4 percent month-to-month to 148.3 billion patacas ($18.53 billion), of which loans denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 0.2 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

As resident deposits grew much faster than domestic loans to the private sector, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of October decreased by 2.7 percentage points month-to-month to 53 percent.