Macao SAR's foreign exchange reserves up 0.4 pct in February

MACAO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Monetary Authority of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) announced on Friday that the preliminary estimate of Macao's foreign exchange reserves at the end of February increased by 0.4 percent from the previous month's revised value.

The reserves reached 241.5 billion patacas (30.15 billion U.S. dollars) in February, compared to 240.4 billion patacas (29.97 billion dollars) in January.

The authority also reported that the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca dropped 0.81 points month-on-month but rose 2.51 points year-on-year to 106.7 in February, implying that overall, the pataca's exchange rate dropped against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners monthly but grew annually. ■