Official data indicate that Portuguese invested a combined 213,000 patacas (over US$26,500) in six new companies incorporated in Macao in the fourth quarter of last year, having invested just 75,000 patacas in three new companies a year earlier.

Figures given by the Macao Statistics and Census Service on Monday show investors of all nationalities together put 539 million patacas into establishing 1,082 new companies in Macao in the fourth quarter of last year.

In the course of last year as a whole, investors from Portuguese-speaking parts of the world together invested 50.7 million patacas in setting up 22 new companies in Macao.

Most of the investment came from Portugal, but one of the companies was set up with money from Angola and another was set up with money from Mozambique, the official figures indicate.