Macao's new residential mortgage loans drop 52.3 pct in January

MACAO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The new approvals of Macao's residential mortgage loans (RMLs) and commercial real estate loans (CRELs) both decreased month-on-month in January, the special administrative region's 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 dropped by 52.3 percent month-on-month to 1.44 billion patacas (178 million U.S. dollars).

The new RMLs to residents, representing 96.0 percent of the total, plunged 47.0 percent to 1.39 billion patacas. The non-resident component also dropped to 58.43 million patacas.

The new CRELs fell by 37.7 percent month-to-month to 976.44 million patacas, all of which were resident loans.

At the end of January, the outstanding value of RMLs edged down 0.3 percent from the previous month, or 2.1 percent from a year earlier, to 237.8 billion patacas.

The outstanding value of CRELs dropped by 2.1 percent month-to-month, or 0.8 percent year-on-year, to 161.5 billion patacas, attributable to the repayment of loans with a large denomination.

At the end of January, the delinquency ratio for RMLs stood at 0.5 percent, which remained unchanged from a month ago, but up 0.2 percentage points over a year earlier.

The delinquency ratio for CRELs stayed at 0.9 percent from the previous month, but up 0.4 percentage points from the end of January 2022. (1 pataca equals 0.12 U.S. dollar)