MACAO, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Macao's new approvals of residential mortgage loans (RMLs) and commercial real estate loans (CRELs) both decreased in February, China's Macao Special Administrative Region's monetary watchdog said Thursday.

Monetary Authority of Macao said that new RMLs approved by Macao banks dropped by 58.8 percent month-to-month to 1.82 billion patacas (225 million U.S. dollars). Among them, new RMLs to residents, representing 97.8 percent of the total, decreased by 58.9 percent to 1.78 billion patacas.

The monthly average of new RMLs approved between December 2018 and February 2019 was 3.3 billion patacas, down by 15.2 percent from the previous period from November 2018 to January 2019.

At the end of February 2019, the outstanding value of RMLs broadly stabilised at 218.0 billion patacas from a month earlier but up by 14.9 percent from a year ago. The resident component made up 92.8 percent of the total.

The outstanding value of CRELs stood at 196.2 billion patacas, which remained broadly stable from a month ago but up by 4.0 percent from a year earlier. Residents accounted for 93.4 percent of the loans.

At the end of February, the delinquency ratio for RMLs edged up by 0.01 percentage point from the preceding month to 0.17 percent, down by 0.05 percentage points over a year earlier. The ratio for CRELs was 0.17 percent, up by 0.01 percentage point from a month ago or 0.02 percentage points from the end of February 2018. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 8.08 patacas)