Macao's lending to private sector down 1.0% in Oct.

Macao's domestic loans to local private sector in October decreased by 1.0 percent month-to-month to an equivalent of 189.4 billion patacas (23.73 billion U.S. dollars), according to figures released by Monetary Authority of Macao on Wednesday.

The figures also indicated that 29.8 percent of the domestic loans was pataca-denominated, while 62.1 percent was denominated in the Hong Kong dollar.

Meanwhile, external loans decreased by 0.6 percent month-to- month to 212 billion patacas (26.56 billion U.S. dollars), of which loans denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 0.8 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively.

As domestic loans to the private sector decreased while resident deposits increased, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of October dropped 2.1 percentage points month-to-month to 48.0 percent.