Bank deposits in Macao up 0.3% in November 2008

MACAO, Jan. 29 (Chinese media) -- Macao's total bank deposits, including those of the residents and the non-residents, slightly increased by 0.3 percent month-to-month to 252 billion patacas (31.9 billion U.S. dollars) in November 2008, according to the figures released on Thursday by the Monetary Authority of the Special Administration Region (SAR).

The figures showed that resident and non-resident deposits amounted to 180.7 billion patacas (22.9 billion U.S. dollars) and 71.2 billion patacas (9 billion U.S. dollars) respectively in November 2008. The shares of pataca and HKD in total deposits were 20.5 percent and 46.7 percent.

Attributed to the faster decline in resident deposits, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at end-November 2008 rose by 0.4 percentage points month-to-month to 47.9 percent while the ratio for both residents and non-residents stood at 57.6 percent, down 2.5 percentage points.

Domestic credit to the private sector shrank 1.3 percent month-to-month to 92 billion patacas (11.6 billion U.S. dollars), among which 18.4 billion patacas (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) was Pataca-denominated and 66.2 billion patacas (8.4 billion U.S. dollars) was denominated in HKD, representing 20 percent and 71.9 percent respectively of the total, according to the figures.

Meanwhile, external credit also saw a decline by 7.3 percent to 55.9 billion patacas (7.08 billion U.S. dollars), of which credit denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 1.8 percent and 47.3 percent respectively of the total, the Authority said.