Macau: GDP plunges in 1Q20

Macau’s gross domestic product decreased during the first quarter of the year, as part of the impact of the pandemic crisis.

Macau.- Macau’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 48.7% year on year the first quarter of the year.

The economic scenario of the SAR is clearly impacted by Coronavirus pandemic with Macau’s exports of services also severely hit: it dropped by 60% year-on-year, while exports of gaming services and other tourism services fell by 61.5% and 63.9% respectively.

The general unemployment rate for February to April increased by 0.1 percentage point to 2.2% from the previous period (January to March 2020), with the unemployment rate of local residents rising by 0.2 percentage points to 3.1%.

The number of people unemployed increased by 400 to 8,900. Most of them were working in gaming and junket activities or in the construction sector.

The number of underemployed also increased by 5,100 to 8,300, with the majority working in the retail trade sector, construction sector, gaming and junket activities or the transport and storage sector.

Gross gaming revenues also fell a 93.2 per cent year-on-year in May to about MOP1.7 billion (US$220.9 million).

According to a recent financial report, there is also a plunge in cumulative gaming revenues for the first five months of this year, decreasing by 73.7 per cent year-on-year to some MOP33 billion (US$4.1 billion).

The fall in revenues is related to the crisis in the gaming industry while the tourism is halted in Macau due to border restrictions intended to contain the spread of Coronavirus.