MACAO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- New SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) credit limit approved by Macao banks in the first six months of 2009 increased by 19.7 percent over the second half of last year to 6.2 billion patacas (785 million U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Thursday by the Monetary Authority of Macao.

    The figures showed that the collateralized ratio, which is part of the credit limit with tangible assets pledged, stood at 39.3 percent in the period, decreasing by 22 percentage points compared with the second half of last year.

    The outstanding value of total SME loans reached 19.5 billion patacas (2.5 billion dollars), with Construction and public works, Wholesale and retail trade and Manufacturing posting the largest shares of 41.2 percent, 17.9 percent and 11.2 percent respectively. The share of SME loans outstanding in domestic loans to the private sector dropped slightly by 0.7 percentage point from six months ago to 21 percent in the period.

    As for delinquent loans, the outstanding balance of SME delinquent loans at the end of June rose slightly by 1.06 percent from six months earlier to 430 million patacas (54 million dollars), resulting in a delinquency ratio of 2.22 percent, according to the Monetary Authority.