The ratio of non-performing loans in Macao’s banking system hit 5.5 percent last December, equalling the 20-year high recorded the month before.
According to data from the Monetary Authority of Macao, the previous record for the highest non-performing loans ratio was registered in August 2004, when the rate hit 6.4 percent.
As of December 2024, the total value of such loans reached around 56.1 billion patacas (about US$7 billion), an increase of roughly 2.2 percent over November’s 54.9 billion patacas.
Local residents accounted for around 38.9 percent of the delinquent loans in December, with a total value of 21.8 billion patacas. Meanwhile, non-residents made up 61 percent of bad debts, clocking in at 34.3 billion patacas.
Lau Hang Kun, a member of the board of directors of the Monetary Authority of Macao, told local media that shifts in the ratio were partly due to the delayed impact of the pandemic, which has resulted in businesses having less ability to repay loans in a high interest rate environment.
He said authorities had already asked banks to boost their credit control procedures and to quickly write-off any bad debts that have been audited and provisioned for.
Meanwhile, new credit extended to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) totalled 3.3 billion patacas (US$411 million) during the latter half of 2024, a drop of almost 26 percent in comparison to the initial half of that year.
The amount of loans that SMEs owed as of December 2024 amounted to 78.4 billion, a 3.2 percent decrease against the figure from last June. Bad debts from the SMEs, on the other hand, reached a sum of 4.9 billion patacas, accounting for 6.2 percent of outstanding SME loans.
Source: https://macaonews.org/news/business/macau-loan-delinquency-sme-credit-2024-macao/