MACAO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The share of international assets in Macao's banking assets increased to 86.1 percent at the end of March 2019 from 85.2 percent at the end of December 2018, while the share of international liabilities in banking liabilities rose to 82.0 percent from 81.1 percent, the special administrative region (SAR)'s monetary watchdog said here on Friday.

According to the statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, at the end of March 2019, the total international assets increased by 8.1 percent from a quarter ago and by 20.6 percent from a year earlier to 1,647.2 billion patacas (about 203.7 billion U.S. dollars).

Meanwhile, the total international liabilities increased by 8.3 percent from three months ago and by 22.3 percent year-on-year to 1,569.8 billion patacas (about 194.1 billion dollars).

The majority of external assets and liabilities were related to Asia and Europe. At the end of March 2019, claims on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong SAR occupied 38.0 percent and 27.8 percent of total external assets, while claims on Germany and Portugal took up 1.7 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.

On external liabilities, Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese mainland accounted for 51.2 percent and 19.5 percent of the total respectively, while Britain and France took up 2.6 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.

Non-local currencies continued to be the dominant denomination in international banking transactions. At the end of March 2019, the shares of the pataca in total international assets and total international liabilities were only 0.7 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

The Hong Kong dollar, the U.S. dollar, the renminbi and other foreign currencies accounted for 39.5 percent, 45.9 percent, 9.1 percent and 4.7 percent of total international assets as well as 47.2 percent, 40.1 percent, 7.8 percent and 4.0 percent of total international liabilities respectively.