MACAO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The new small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit limit approved by Macao banks totaled 17.0 billion patacas (about 2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2019, up by 60.4 percent from the same period of 2018, the special administrative region's monetary watchdog said here on Monday.
According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the collateralized ratio, which indicates the proportion of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, was 69.2 percent in the first half of 2019.
The collateralized ratio was down by 6.2 percentage points when compared with the last survey period, i.e. the second half of 2018, or 8.2 percentage points when compared with the first half of 2018.
As at the end of June 2019, the outstanding balance of total SME loans increased 4.9 percent from the end of 2018 or 12.6 percent from a year earlier to 92.2 billion patacas (about 11.4 billion dollars).
Compared to the last survey period, SME loans to construction and public works, and information technology increased at respective rates of 12.7 percent and 7.6 percent, whereas those to restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing industries dropped 16.2 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
The utilization rate, defined as the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, decreased 0.3 percentage points from six months ago, but rose 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 79.7 percent.
The delinquency ratio, a ratio of delinquent loans outstanding balance to total SME loans outstanding, stood at 0.53 percent at the end of June 2019.
