MACAO, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Macao's domestic loans to the private sector reached 97.1 billion patacas (12.3 billion U.S. dollars) in October, growing by 0.7 percent month-to-month, according to the figures released on Monday by the Monetary Authority of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

    Of the domestic loans, 23.7 percent was pataca-denominated while 69.4 percent was HKD (Hong Kong dollar)-denominated, the figures showed.

    Meanwhile, the SAR's external loans also rose by 8.4 percent month-to-month to 80.2 billion patacas (10.2 billion dollars), of which loans denominated in pataca and HKD accounted for 1.3 percent and 48 percent respectively of the total, according to the Monetary Authority.

    As resident deposits rose at a faster pace than domestic loans to the private sector, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector at the end of October 2009 decreased by 0.2 percentage point month-to-month to 44.2 percent, while the ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors also increased by 1.8 percentage points to 60.6 percent.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis