Macao's lending to private sector grows 0.6 pct in August

Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in August increased by 0.6 percent month-to-month to an equivalent of 187.6 billion patacas (23.49 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Friday by the Monetary Authority of Macao.

The figures also indicated that 27.8 percent of the domestic loans were pataca-denominated, while 63.6 percent was denominated in Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans rose by 1.2 percent month-to-month to 215.7 billion patacas (27.01 billion U.S. dollars), of which loans denominated in pataca and Hong Kong dollar accounted for 0.6 percent and 24.1 percent, respectively.

With resident deposits growing faster than domestic loans to the private sector, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of August decreased by 2.1 percentage points month- to-month to 49.1 percent.