Forex reserves grow in June

The foreign exchange reserves of the Special Administrative Region jumped to MOP151.3 billion (US$18.9 billion) as at the end of June, according to a preliminary estimate by the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMAC) released yesterday.
Compared to MOP144.1 billion one year ago, the city’s foreign exchange reserves as at June-end represent an increase of five per cent. On a month-on-month comparison, the amount is also slightly up by 0.6 per cent from MOP150.4 billion.
As at the end of last month, the foreign exchange reserves represented 12 times the currency in circulation, or 106.5 per cent of Pataca M2 at the end of May.
‘M2’ refers to that part of the money supply that includes physical coins and currency, as well as readily liquid assets such as on-demand bank deposits and money held in cheque accounts plus all time-related deposits, savings deposits, and non-institutional money market funds.
Meanwhile, the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the Pataca jumped 0.15 points month-on-month to 101.51 in June, and by 1.52 points year-on-year.
The increases suggest the local currency appreciated against the currencies of the city’s major trading partners in general, according to the authority.