Macao's lending to private sector grows 2% in Sept

MACAO - Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in September increased by 2.0 percent month-on-month to an equivalent of 191.4 billion patacas ($23.98 billion), according to figures released on Monday by Monetary Authority of Macao.

The figures also indicated that 28.4 percent of the domestic loans was pataca-denominated, while 63.2 percent was denominated in Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans decreased by 1.1 percent month-on-month to 213.3 billion patacas ($26.73 billion), of which loans denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 0.7 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively.

As domestic loans to the private sector grew faster than resident deposits, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of September increased by 0.5 percentage points month-on-month to 49.6 percent.