The Macau Metro Monitor, January 14, 2011

MACAU TOURIST PRICE INDEX FOR THE 4TH QUARTER 2010 DSEC

Macau Tourist Price Index (TPI) for 4Q 2010 rose by 11.63% YoY to 177.03.  Specifically, Miscellaneous Goods (+21.01%), Accommodation (+18.97%), Transport & Communications (+5.17%), Restaurant Services (+4.94%) and Food, Alcoholic Drinks & Tobacco (+4.74%) all recorded notable increases.


PACKAGE TOURS & HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR NOVEMBER 2010 DSEC

For the 1st time in 7 months, visitor arrivals in package tours fell.  Nov 2010 tours declined by 9.3% YoY to 450,597--visitors from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia fell by 12.3%, 3.2%, 29.6% and 4.0% respectively, while those from Japan, Republic of Korea, and India rose by 1.2%, 139.5% and 59.9% respectively.

Total number of available guest rooms of the hotel sector increased by 4.2% YoY to 20,059 rooms.  Number of hotel guests increased 4.3% YoY.

SINGAPORE RETAIL SALES CONTINUE NORTH Strait Times

The Singapore retail index fell 2.4% YoY in November as car sales tumbled 30%.  However, ex car sales, the retail index grew by 5.4%--the 13th straight month of gains--spurred by higher wages, big bonuses and record tourist arrivals.

CHINA RAISES BANK RESERVE RATIO AS FOREIGN HOLDINGS, LOANS JUMP Bloomberg

The 50bps increase, effective January 20, will raise the reserve requirement ratio for China's biggest banks to a record high of 19.5%.  The move was spurred by surging FX reserves and new loans.

According to sources, China’s regulators limited new loans to less than 800BN yuan this month after loans exceeded 500BN in the first seven days of the new year.  That compares with the 480.7BN yuan of new loans extended in December.