The foreign exchange reserves of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) was preliminary estimated at 127.2 billion patacas (15.93 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of December 2008, the SAR's Monetary Authority announced on Friday.

The reserves for December 2008 rose by 0.6 percent from the revised value of 126.4 billion (15.83 billion dollars) for the previous month, according to the AMCM figures. When compared with the same period last year, the reserves increased by 19.6 percent.

The AMCM also said that the SAR's foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2008 represented 29 times the currency in circulation.

Meanwhile, the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency's exchange rates against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners, fell by 0.98 points month-to-month but increased by 2.4 points year-on-year to 91.98 in December 2008.

Source: Xinhua