Macau's financial reserve gains 3.21 million euros in 12 months
Macau's financial reserves gained 28.1 billion patacas (3.21 billion euros) in the past 12 months, but are still far from the historical maximum, according to data released today.
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Mundo Macau
The financial reserve of the Chinese special administrative region stood at 597.8 billion patacas (68.3 billion euros) at the end of March, according to information published in the Official Gazette by the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM).
The reserve gained 5.44 billion patacas (621.6 million euros), compared to the end of February, and 16.4 billion patacas (1.88 billion euros) since the beginning of 2024.
However, the value remains far from the record of 669.7 billion patacas (76.6 billion euros) reached in February 2021, at the height of the covid-19 pandemic.
The value of the extraordinary reserve at the end of March was 431.9 billion patacas (49.4 billion euros) and the basic reserve, equivalent to 150% of Macau's public budget for this year, was 153.4 billion patacas (17.5 billion euros).
On November 7, the Legislative Assembly of Macau approved the region's budget for this year, which foresees a 1.4% increase in total expenses, to 105.9 billion patacas (12.1 billion euros).
Macau's financial reserve is mostly composed of deposits and current accounts worth 244.1 billion patacas (27.9 billion euros), credit securities in the amount of 129.5 billion patacas (14.8 billion euros) and up to 225.8 billion patacas (25.8 billion euros) in subcontracted investments.
Macau's financial reserve gained 22.2 billion patacas (2.54 billion euros) last year, after having lost almost four times more the previous year.
This despite the fact that, in 2023, the region's authorities once again transferred almost 10.4 billion patacas (1.19 billion euros) from the financial reserve to the public budget.
At the end of January, the AMCM stressed that investments yielded the financial reserve almost 29 billion patacas (3.32 billion euros) in 2023, corresponding to a profitability rate of 5.2%.
Macau's 2024 budget foresees the return of surpluses in public accounts, after three years of economic crisis due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The bill approved in general foresees that Macau will end this year with a positive balance of 1.17 billion patacas (133.8 million euros), "with no need to resort to the financial reserve".
The territory, whose economy depends on tourism, cancelled all covid-19 prevention and containment measures in January 2023, after almost three years of strict restrictions imposed by the 'zero covid' policy, which was also in force in China.
Read Also: IMF raises China's economic growth forecast from 4.6% to 5% (Portuguese version)
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