MACAO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Macao's foreign exchange reserves reached 157.9 billion patacas (19.63 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of September, the Special Administrative Region (SAR)'s monetary watchdog said Monday.
The Monetary Authority of Macao announced that the preliminary estimate of Macao's foreign exchange reserves decreased by 1.0 percent from the revised value of 159.5 billion patacas (19.79 billion dollars) for the previous month. The SAR's foreign exchange reserves at the end of September 2017 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 88.3 percent of pataca M2 at the end of August 2017.
The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.71 points month-to-month and 2.16 points year-on-year to 103.6 in September 2017, implying that overall speaking, the exchange rate of the pataca declined against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners.
