Macao's lending to private sector grows 3.8 pct in July

Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in July increased by 3.8 percent month-to-month to an equivalent of 186.5 billion patacas (23.35 billion U.S. dollars) , according to the figures released Wednesday by the Monetary Authority of Macao.

The figures also indicated that 26.9 percent of the domestic loans was pataca-denominated, while 62.9 percent was denominated in Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans rose by 5.8 percent month-to-month to 213.1 billion patacas (26.68 billion U.S. dollars), of which loans denominated in pataca and Hong Kong dollar accounted for 0.6 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively.

With domestic loans to the private sector growing faster than the resident deposits, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of July increased by 0.4 percentage points month- to-month to 51.2 percent.