According to statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, newly approved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit rebounded in the first half of 2020 while the outstanding balance of SME loans increased.

New lending approved

In the first half of 2020, new SME credit limit approved by Macao banks totalled MOP15.4 billion, up 80.1% from the second half of 2019 but down 7.2% from the same period of 2019.  The collateralised ratio, which indicates the proportion of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, was 48.5%, down 12.6 percentage points when compared with the last survey period or 20.0 percentage points when compared with the same period of 2019.

Credit utilisation

As at end-June 2020, the outstanding balance of SME loans increased 3.5% from end-2019 or 2.2% from a year earlier to MOP89.7 billion. Compared to the last survey period, outstanding SME loans to “transport, warehouse and communications” , “wholesale and retail trade” and “manufacturing industries” increased at respective rates of 33.7%, 28.4% and 19.6%.

The utilisation rate, defined as the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, rose 0.9 percentage points from six months ago or 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 81.4%. 

Delinquent loans

At end-June 2020, the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans grew 39.9% from six months ago or 9.7% from the preceding year to MOP228.3 million.  The delinquency ratio, the fraction of delinquent loans to total SME loans outstanding, rose 0.07 percentage points from end-2019 or 0.02 percentage points from end-June 2019 to 0.25%.