The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP195.4 billion (USD24.47 billion) at the end of January 2021. The reserves decreased by 2.7% from the revised value of MOP200.8 billion (USD25.14 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-January 2021 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 83.0% of pataca M2 at end-December 2020.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.45 points month-to-month and 5.50 points year-on-year to 101.9 in January 2021, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners.