MACAO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Macao's broad money supply retreated in February, and resident deposits also dropped, the special administrative region's monetary watchdog said on Wednesday.

The latest report issued by the Monetary Authority of Macao said that currency in circulation and demand deposits grew 6.0 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. M1 thus increased 1.5 percent from one month earlier.

On an annual basis, M1 and M2 grew 11.7 percent and 12.1 percent respectively.

Resident deposits dropped 0.7 percent from the preceding month to 589.9 billion patacas (about 72.96 billion U.S. dollars) while non-resident deposits also fell 1.1 percent to 254.7 billion patacas (about 31.50 billion U.S. dollars).

Meanwhile, public sector deposits with the banking sector increased 4.7 percent to 197.4 billion patacas (about 24.44 billion U.S. dollars).

At the end of February, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector edged up from 58.6 percent at the end of January to 58.7 percent. Meanwhile, the ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors also rose from 87.0 percent to 87.1 percent.