Macao's resident deposits registered an increase of 2.1 percent month-to-month to 182.2 billion patacas (22.8 billion U.S. dollars) in July, according to the figures Monday released by the Monetary Authority (AMCM) of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Of the total resident deposits, other foreign currency deposits slid 0.5 percent in July while pataca and HK dollar deposits rose at respective rates of 1.2 percent and 3.5 percent, according to the AMCM statistics.

Non-resident deposits amounted to 74.5 billion patacas (9.31 billion U.S. dollars), down by 0.4 percent, it said.

Based on the combined deposits of the resident and non-resident, total deposits with Macao banks saw an increase of 1.3 percent in July over the previous month, and the shares of pataca and HK dollar in total deposits were 19.7 percent and 45 percent respectively, at 50.6 billion patacas (6.3 billion dollars) and 115.6 billion patacas (14.5 billion dollars), the AMCM said.

Meanwhile, the figures showed that domestic credit to the private sector increased by 4.5 percent month-to-month to 88.1 billion (11 billion dollars), of which 17.9 billion patacas (2.24 billion dollars) was pataca-denominated and 61.3 billion patacas (7.66 billion dollars) was denominated in HK dollar, representing 20.4 percent and 69.6 percent respectively of the total.

Total domestic credit, after deducting public sector deposits, rose to 2.9 billion patacas (363 million dollars) in July.

With regard to currency denomination, domestic credit to the private sector in pataca, HK dollar and other foreign currencies increased by 0.3 percent, 4.2 percent and 17.1 percent in the period respectively, said the AMCM.

At the end of July 2008, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector grew by one percentage point month-to-month to 45.4 percent while the ratio for both resident and non-resident sectors stood at 62.8 percent, down 0.1 percentage point, the AMCM added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2008)