Macau's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 45.9 percent year-on-year in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2020, a smaller decline than in the preceding quarter (-63.8 percent), the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced yesterday.
According to a DSEC statement, external demand recovered compared to the previous quarter; export of services dropped at a slower pace, by 61.0 percent year-on-year, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services falling by 70.3 percent and 48.9 percent respectively.
Exports of goods surged by 245.2 percent. As regards domestic demand, investment dropped by 11.7 percent year-on-year; private consumption expenditure decreased by 10.2 percent, while government final consumption expenditure rose by 8.4 percent.
The statement pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on global economic activity in 2020. Macau's economy, which was mainly driven by exports of services, was "inevitably" affected, with a substantial drop in total demand.
For the whole year of 2020, the economy declined by 56.3 percent in real terms. Domestic demand shrank by 10.3 percent year-on-year; gross fixed capital formation fell by 15.1 percent resulting from a decline in private construction investment. Private consumption decreased by 16.3 percent year-on-year as residents went out less and made fewer trips abroad amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and the economic outlook remained uncertain.
In response to the pandemic, the statement underlined, the Macau government scaled up the procurement of protective gear and medical supplies, rented hotels to be used as quarantine facilities and introduced a raft of economic relief measures, which drove up government final consumption expenditure by 11.4 percent; compensation of employees and net purchases of goods and services went up by 2.4 percent and 22.5 percent respectively.
Concerning external demand, visitor arrivals dropped by 85.0 percent due to travel restrictions imposed locally and abroad. Consequently, exports of services dropped by 74.9 percent year-on-year, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services falling by 80.4 percent and 73.4 percent respectively. However, merchandise exports soared by 128.9 percent.
In 2020, GDP amounted to 194.4 billion patacas and per-capita GDP stood at 285,314 patacas (US$35,714)at current prices. Per capital GDP fell by 56.8 percent year-on-year in real terms Besides, the implicit deflator of GDP, which measures overall changes in prices, remained steady year-on-year in 2020 and dropped by 2.0 percent in the fourth quarter.
