The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP200.5 billion (USD25.03 billion) at the end of March 2021. The reserves increased by 1.0% from the revised value of MOP198.5 billion (USD24.85 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-March 2021 represented 10 times the currency in circulation or 83.8% of pataca M2 at end-February 2021.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose 1.04 points month-to-month but fell 5.26 points year-on-year to 103.2 in March 2021, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca grew against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners on a monthly basis but dropped on an annual basis.