Off the wire
• Urgent: UN Security Council adopts resolution to end Liberia sanctions  • U.S. stocks open higher on Greece bailout, rising oil  • Spotlight: Afghan Taliban appoints new leader amid factional differences  • Majority of Germans in favor of admitting war refugees into Germany: survey  • London growing almost twice as fast as rest of England:ONS  • Abidjan hosts regional summit on prohibition of chemical weapons  • Prisoner swap with Ukraine may help solve crisis: Putin  • Hamas approves death penalty law despite government opposition  • Brunei lifts ban on import of Japanese food products  • China, EU to jointly ensure success of upcoming G20 summit  
You are here: 　 Home

Macao's economic, financial conditions remain sound: monetary regulator

Xinhua, May 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

The monetary regulator of Macao on Wednesday said the economic and financial conditions of the special administrative region (SAR) are sound, after global rating agency Moody's downgraded the SAR's government issuer rating to Aa3 from Aa2 with a negative outlook.

The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) said Macao is able to deal with economic fluctuations. The SAR's public finance stayed in surplus at 15.5 billion patacas (about 1.94 billion U. S. dollars) for the first four months of 2016, after registering a surplus of 29.3 billion patacas in 2015, the regulator said.

AMCM also said that at the end of the first quarter of 2016, the fiscal reserve assets were estimated at 436 billion patacas, equivalent to 59 months of 2016 government budget expenditure. In addition, the SAR government has no debt.

The monetary authority reiterated that the SAR's economic foundations have remained positive. In a period of deep economic adjustment, Macao's employment situation remained stable as the unemployment rate stayed below 2 percent. Its GDP per capita reached 71,984 U.S. dollars, which was one of the highest in the world.

Moody's said in a news release on Wednesday that the negative outlook reflects uncertainties surrounding the trajectory for growth, the policy response, and the consequences for Macao's fiscal and external buffers.

It also mentioned that Macao's large fiscal buffers provide it with significant space to carry out policy stimulus, although the government has yet to dip into these reserves to counter or alleviate the decline in growth. Endit