MACAO, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Macao's foreign exchange reserves were estimated to be 14.48 billion U.S. dollars at the end of May this year, the Monetary Authority (AMCM) of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) announced on Monday.

The reserves dropped by 0.2 percent from the revised value of 14.54 billion dollars for the previous month, but increased by 34.4 percent, when compared with the same period last year, according to the AMCM figures.

Meanwhile, the SAR's foreign exchange reserves at end-May 2008 represented 29 times the currency in circulation, according to the AMCM.

AMCM also said that the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency's exchange rates against the currencies of Macao's major trading partners, rose by 0.26 point month-to-month or fell 4.78 points year-on-year to 87.24 in May this year.