Macau GDP down 33.4% for Q3

Exports of gaming services and other tourism services declined by 45.9 per cent year-on-year in the three months to September 30.

Macau.- Macau Statistics and Census Service has reported that gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of the year was down by 33.4 per cent year-on-year. That’s a slight improvement on a 39.3 per cent decline in the second quarter.

Exports of services declined by 46.7 per cent year-on-year, while exports of gaming services and other tourism services by 72.5 per cent and 45.9 per cent respectively. The number of visitor arrivals to Macau fell by 50.8 per cent year-on-year, affecting tourism, mainly due to a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases that led to a temporary closure of casinos.

Because of a drop in gross fixed capital formation and private consumption expenditure, domestic demand declined by 14.2 per cent. The implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, fell by 1.1 per cent year-on-year. 

In 2021, Macau’s GDP rose by 18 per cent year-on-year to MOP239.4bn but GDP fell by 8.9 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.

Macau wants 60% of GDP to come from non-gaming

Ho Iat Seng, Macau’s chief executive, has said that one of his administration’s main goals is to ensure that non-gaming accounts for 60 per cent of Macau’s GDP in the future. During his policy speech for 2023 at the Legislative Assembly, he emphasised the government’s promotion of the healthcare, finance, technology and sports and culture sectors.

Macau’s chief executive said the government will focus its diversification efforts on these four sectors, with each to account for at least 15 per cent of the city’s GDP. He added that Macau’s economic transformation would take time and hard work and stressed that the city must innovate.