Macau's gross domestic product shrank 4.7 percent in real terms last year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced today.
It was Macau's first negative GDP growth in three years. In 2018 and 2017 the economy grew 5.4 percent and 9.9 percent respectively, after three consecutive years of negative growth.
Today's DSEC statement noted that Macau has experienced negative growth since the first quarter of 2019 due to decreases in investment and exports of services. Domestic demand fell 4.6 percent and gross fixed capital formation dropped 20.1 percent as private construction investment "showed a dramatic decline," the statement said.
"Despite an increase in total employment and employment earnings, the growth in private consumption expenditure slowed to 2.9 percent on the back of cautious consumer spending due to economic uncertainties," the statement said.
The statement also pointed out that visitors' total spending decreased in spite of an increase in visitor arrivals, and gross revenue from games of chance dropped at an "accelerating" pace as from the third quarter. Consequently, the statement underlined, exports of services slid by 3. 4 percent, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services falling 4.0 percent and 5.7 percent respectively. Exports of goods fell 8.3 percent.
According to the statement, GDP amounted to 434.7 billion patacas last year when per-capita GDP stood at 645,438 patacas (US$79,977).
In terms of Macau's GDP structure last year, the relative importance of net exports of goods and services to GDP was 50.1 percent, while the relative importance of domestic demand to GDP stood at 49.9 percent, with the share of investment falling 3.0 percentage points.
GDP in the fourth and third quarters fell 8.1 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.
