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 the figures released on Thursday by the Monetary Authority of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The figures 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 (9.86 billion dollars), 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 (11.8 billion dollars).

Source: Xinhua