IMF: Macau GDP won’t pass pre-pandemic levels until 2025

The International Monetary Fund has predicted Macau’s GDP will grow by 15 per cent this year.

Macau.- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that Macau’s gross domestic product (GDP) is unlikely to exceed pre-pandemic levels until 2025. Following an official visit to Macau, the IMF said it expects GDP to grow by 15 per cent this year as tourism recovers and domestic demand improves. 

It expects growth to accelerate in 2023 before gradually reducing to a long-term potential of around 3.5 per cent annual growth. Macau’s economy shrank by 54 per cent in 2020 due to a sharp drop in GDP following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Analysts at the IMF said an economic recovery depends on a safe reopening to tourists, with Covid-19 vaccination key to that goal. Analysts also noted Macau’s economic diversification and praised the construction of the Cooperation Zone with Guangdong in Hengqin. The IMF said diversification will help Macau to reduce its economy’s vulnerability to external shocks.

Macau’s January GGR will be down 77% from pre-pandemic levels – analysts

Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd has predicted that Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for January will be down 77 per cent when compared to pre-pandemic levels. The average daily GGR for the third week of January was down 53 per cent when compared to the previous week, falling from MOP244m (US$30.5m) to MOP114m (US$14.2m).

Month-to-date GGR is MOP4.9bn (US$612m), down 74 per cent when compared to pre-pandemic levels, with average daily revenue of MOP213m. The figure is also down 17 per cent from December 2021 levels.