MACAO, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Macao's foreign exchange reserves amounted to 140.8 billion patacas (17.63 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of July 2009, according to the preliminarily-estimated figures released on Friday by the Monetary Authority of the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

    The figures indicated that the reserves for July fell by 0.8 percent from the revised value of 141.9 billion patacas (17.78 billion dollars) for the previous month. When compared with the same period last year, the reserves increased by 17 percent.

    The SAR's foreign exchange reserves for July represented 30 times the currency in circulation in the period, according to the Monetary Authority.

    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, dropped by 0.11 point month-to-month but rose by 3.84 points year-on-year to 90.44 in July, said the Authority.