Macao's resident deposits increase in December 2008

MACAO, Feb. 26 (Chinese media) -- Macao's resident deposits increased by 2.6

percent month-to-month to 185.4 billion patacas (23.5 billion U.S. dollars) in

December 2008, according to figures released on Thursday by the Monetary

Authority of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Statistics showed that pataca deposits, HK dollar deposits and other

foreign currency deposits rose at respective rates of 1.9 percent, 1.8 percent

and 5.8 percent in December last year.

Meanwhile, nonresident deposits totaled 77.9 billion patacas, equivalent to

an increase of 9.3 percent month-to-month in the period.

Total deposits, the sum of resident deposits and nonresident deposits, grew

4.5 percent month-to-month in the period, with the shares of pataca and HK

dollar in total deposits reaching 20 percent and 46.4 percent respectively,

according to the Monetary Authority.

In addition, public sector deposits with the Monetary Authority and the

banking sector continued their up trend in December 2008, as they increased by

1.5 percent over the previous month to 93.3 billion patacas.