In yet another sign of China's growing economic bite, Macau, the former Portuguese colony returned to Beijing's sovereignty in 2000, is being urged to abandon its currency's peg to the United States dollar.
Both Hong Kong and Macau have retained their currencies' peg to the greenback as a means of preserving exchange rate stability and despite both territories' return to China. But economist Albano Martins said recently that the Macau currency, the pataca, has been slipping in value in relation to the Chinese yuan.
