MACAO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The new approvals of Macao's residential mortgage loans (RMLs) increased in January 2022 while those of commercial real estate loans (CRELs) decreased in the month, the special administrative region's (SAR) monetary watchdog said on Monday.
According to the statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the new RMLs approved by Macao banks in January rose 40.4 percent month on month to 3.50 billion patacas (about 435.4 million U.S. dollars).
The new RMLs to residents, representing 99.3 percent of the total, grew 41.5 percent to 3.48 billion patacas. The non-resident component fell 34.6 percent to 24.5 million patacas.
The monthly average of new RMLs approved between November 2021 and January 2022 was 3.1 billion patacas, up 14.6 percent from the previous period from October to December 2021.
The new CRELs dropped 70.6 percent month on month to 3.23 billion patacas. The new CRELs to residents, or 99.6 percent of the total, decreased by 70.6 percent to 3.22 billion patacas.
The new CRELs to non-residents declined by 65.5 percent to 12.6 million patacas.
The monthly average of new CRELs approved between November 2021 and January 2022 was 9.0 billion patacas, up 5.0 percent as compared with the period from October to December 2021.
At the end of January 2022, the outstanding value of RMLs fell 0.2 percent month on month, but rose 1.7 percent from a year earlier to 239.2 billion patacas, attributable to the repayment of loans with large denomination.
The outstanding value of CRELs was 162.2 billion patacas, which grew 0.3 percent from a month earlier, but decreased by 2.5 percent from a year ago.
At the end of January, the delinquency ratio for RMLs stood at 0.29 percent, up by 0.01 percentage point from a month ago, and 0.04 percentage point over a year earlier.
The delinquency ratio for CRELs stood at 0.52 percent, a drop of 0.07 percentage point from a month ago, but virtually unchanged from the end of January 2021. (1 pataca equals 0.1244 U.S. dollar) ■
