MACAO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The proportion of international business in Macao's local banking sector fell in the third quarter of 2019, the special administrative region (SAR)'s monetary watchdog said here on Saturday.
According to the statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the share of international assets in total banking assets decreased to 85.4 percent at the end of September from 85.9 percent at the end of June, while that of international liabilities fell to 81.9 percent from 82.1 percent.
Non-local currencies continued to be dominant in international banking transactions. At the end of September 2019, both the shares of the pataca in total international assets and total international liabilities were 0.8 percent.
The Hong Kong dollar, the U.S. dollar, the renminbi and other currencies accounted for 38.4 percent, 46.9 percent, 9.8 percent and 4.1 percent of total international assets, as well as 44.1 percent, 44.4 percent, 7.1 percent and 3.6 percent of total international liabilities respectively.
At the end of September 2019, total international assets increased by 0.8 percent from a quarter ago and by 13.4 percent from a year earlier to 1,677.5 billion patacas (about 207.7 billion U.S. dollars).
Total international liabilities increased by 1.1 percent from three months ago and by 15.2 percent year-on-year to 1,608.1 billion patacas (about 199.1 billion dollars).
The majority of external assets and liabilities were related to Asia and Europe. At the end of September 2019, claims on Chinese mainland and Hong Kong SAR occupied 37.6 percent and 29.8 percent of total external assets, while claims on Portugal and Germany took up 1.2 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.
On external liabilities, Hong Kong SAR and Chinese mainland accounted for 46.8 percent and 21.7 percent of the total respectively, while Britain and France took up 4.6 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.
