Generous hands

Approved credit limits by local banks for new small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the first half of 2017 decreased 7.3 per cent compared to the second half of 2016, totalling MOP12.61 billion (US$1.56 billion), according to statistics released on Friday by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM).
However, the amount represented a 26.8 per cent year-on-year rise.
The proportion of the credit limit to tangible assets pledged by the end of the first six months of this year, also referred to as the collateralised ratio, was 86.3 per cent, up 2.4 percentage points when compared to the second half of last year and 4.7 percentage points yearly.
The outstanding value of total SME loans, meanwhile, went up by 4.3 per cent from the end of the second half of 2016 to MOP72.7 billion, also going up by 7.4 per cent when compared to the first half of last year.
By industry, loans to ‘restaurants, hotels and similar activities’ and ‘construction and public works’ grew by 28.4 per cent and 14.6 per cent year-on-year, respectively.
On the other hand, loans to ‘transport, warehouse and communications’, ‘manufacturing industries’ and ‘wholesale and retail trade’ decreased yearly by 14.4 per cent, 11 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.
The proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, also known as the utilisation rate, was 68.5 per cent, an increase of 6.8 percentage points from the first half of last year.
Meanwhile, a fall of 11.1 per cent was recorded in the outstanding balance of delinquent SME loans half-on-half, totalling MOP514 million. However, the balance grew considerably by almost 67.8 per cent when compared to the same period a year ago.
The ratio of outstanding delinquent loans to total outstanding SME loans, referred to as the delinquency ratio, went down by 0.12 percentage points half-on-half to 0.71 per cent.