MACAO, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Macao's new approvals of residential mortgage loans and commercial real estate loans decreased month-to-month in February this year, according to statistics released on Wednesday by the Monetary Authority of Macao.

In February 2018, new residential mortgage loans approved by Macao banks dropped by 28.4 percent month-to-month to 2.6 billion patacas (321.581 million U.S. dollars). The monthly average of new residential mortgage loans approved between December 2017 and February 2018 was 3.1 billion patacas, down by 13.5 percent from the previous period (November 2017 to January 2018).

New commercial real estate loans dropped by 47.7 percent month-to-month to 6.8 billion patacas. The monthly average of new commercial real estate loans approved between December 2017 and February 2018 was 8.4 billion patacas, slightly up by 0.9 percent when compared with the previous period (November 2017 to January 2018).

At the end of February 2018, the delinquency ratio for residential mortgage loans was 0.22 percent, up 0.02 percentage points from a month ago or 0.03 percentage points over a year earlier. The ratio for commercial real estate loans was 0.14 percent, virtually unchanged from the preceding month but up 0.01 percentage point from the end of February 2017.