MACAO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The preliminary estimate of Macao's foreign exchange reserves amounted to 178.3 billion patacas (about 22.22 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of December 2019, the special administrative region (SAR)'s monetary watchdog said here on Thursday.
According to the latest report released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the foreign exchange reserves increased by 4.3 percent from the revised value of 170.9 billion patacas (21.20 billion dollars) for the previous month.
Macao SAR's foreign exchange reserves at the end of December 2019 represented 11 times the currency in circulation, or 85.6 percent of pataca M2 at the end of November 2019.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.01 point month-to-month but rose 0.94 points year-on-year to 107.7 in December 2019, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners on a monthly basis but increased on an annual basis.
