Macao's lending to private sector up 2.1% in Nov

MACAO - Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in November 2013 increased 2.1 percent month-to-month to an equivalent of 254.8 billion patacas ($31.9 billion), according to the latest figures released by Monetary Authority of Macao.

The figures also indicated that 31.2 percent of the domestic loans was pataca-denominated, while 59.7 percent was denominated in Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans increased by 5.3 percent month-to-month to 278.8 billion patacas ($34.91 billion), of which loans denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 1.6 percent and 22.4 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 November 2013 rose 0.8 percentage points month-to-month to 50.5 percent.