Macau's financial reserve sees biggest increase since pandemic in 2024

Macau's financial reserve recorded its best year since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2024, after gaining 35.7 billion patacas (4.26 billion euros), it was announced this Wednesday.

According to data from the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM), it was the highest annual increase since 2019 , when the value of the reserve increased by 70.6 billion patacas (8.41 billion euros).

The Chinese semi-autonomous region's financial reserves will gain 22.2 billion patacas (2.64 billion euros) in 2023 , after losing almost four times that amount the previous year.

The value of the reserve stood at 616.2 billion patacas (73.4 billion euros) at the end of December, according to data published in the Official Gazette of Macau.

Still, the value remains far from the record of 663.6 billion patacas (79 billion euros) reached in February 2021, in the midst of the pandemic.

The territory's financial reserve lost 1.76 billion patacas (209.8 million euros) in December, compared to November.

The value of the extraordinary reserve at the end of 2024 was 431.9 billion patacas (51.4 billion euros) and the basic reserve, equivalent to 150% of Macau's public budget, was 153.4 billion patacas (18.3 billion euros).

The territory's budget for 2024 predicted a 1.4% increase in total expenditure, to 105.9 billion patacas (12.6 billion euros).

Macau's financial reserve is mainly composed of deposits and current accounts worth 246.7 billion patacas (29.4 billion euros), credit securities worth 118 billion patacas (14.1 billion euros) and up to 244 billion patacas (29.1 billion euros) in outsourced investments .

In 2023, investments yielded almost 29 billion patacas (3.45 billion euros) to the financial reserve, corresponding to a profitability rate of 5.2%.

This is despite the fact that, in 2023, the region's authorities transferred almost 10.4 billion patacas (1.24 billion euros) from the financial reserve to the public budget.

Macau's budget for 2024 envisaged the return of surpluses in public accounts, anticipating a positive balance of 1.17 billion patacas (139.4 million euros), without “ the need to resort to the financial reserve ”.

The territory, whose economy depends on tourism and gambling , canceled all Covid-19 prevention and containment measures in January 2023, after almost three years of strict restrictions imposed by the “zero Covid” policy, which was also in force in China.