China's Macao Special Administrative Region had official foreign exchange reserves amounting to 30.6 billion patacas (about US$3.81 billion) at the end of September, the Macao Monetary Authority revealed Friday.
This represents a modest increase over the figure for the year-end of 2001, which stood at 28.2 billion patacas (US$3.53 billion).
The source said Macao's forex reserves are very ample, equal to about 15.6 times of money in circulation and 11.9 times of the value of imported goods and services for last year.
The Macao Monetary Authority is poised to establish a market supervision scheme up to international standard, run forex reserves in a more cautious manner and develop Macao into a more influential financial service center step by step.
(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2002)
