The rating agency believes gross gaming revenue in Macau will recover to half of pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- Andrew Fennell<\/strong>, Fitch\u2019s head of Greater China sovereigns, has issued a report suggesting that Macau’s economy could rebound by 46 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. This is based on an assumption that gross gaming revenue will recover to half its pre-pandemic level with an easing of mainland travel restrictions boosting the mass market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Macau\u2019s GDP would remain below 2018 levels. Fitch predicts that GDP will not recover to 2019 levels until at least the end of 2025, with a modest non-gaming diversification<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the third quarter of the year, Macau’s real GDP was down<\/a> by 33.4 per cent year-on-year. That was a slight improvement on a 39.3 per cent decline in the second quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April, Fitch affirmed Macau’s ‘AA\/Stable’ rating but in its recent report, Fennell noted that the rating could be at risk of falling if the gaming industry fails to recover in the medium term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsie Ao Ieong U<\/strong>, Macau\u2019s secretary for social affairs and culture said the city will undergo a \u2018gradual opening up\u2019 to emerge from China\u2019s Zero-Covid policy. For nearly three years, Macau has been effectively closed to visitors other than from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to the media, Ao Ieong said: \u201cAt this moment, the community is going to face the outbreak, and we will have an increase in the number of cases in the city<\/strong>. We have to prepare ourselves for these positive cases to appear in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said it was impossible for Macau to remain shut<\/strong> to the outside world and stressed. Nevertheless, she sounded a note of caution, noting that future measures must not allow a widespread outbreak to occur. She said authorities hoped that the citizens could understand the characteristics of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The rating agency believes gross gaming revenue in Macau will recover to half of pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Fitch Ratings projects Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) to recover to 50% of pre-pandemic levels, driving a 46% GDP rebound in 2023, though full recovery to 2019 GDP levels is not expected until late 2025. This outlook is contingent on easing mainland travel restrictions boosting the mass market, with a warning that failure to recover could risk Macau's 'AA\/Stable' rating. Concurrently, Macau's Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture announced a \"gradual opening up\" from China's Zero-Covid policy, acknowledging an anticipated increase in community cases.","focusai_entities":"Fitch, Andrew Fennell, Elsie Ao Ieong U","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau Policy Impact?","query":"What specific policy changes are anticipated to facilitate the 'gradual opening up' and how will they impact visitor volumes from mainland China and international markets, particularly concerning visa processing and travel quotas?"},{"label":"Mitigating Rating Risk?","query":"Given the Fitch warning, what contingency measures are Macau authorities and concessionaires implementing to mitigate the risk of a prolonged GGR underperformance and potential sovereign rating downgrade, beyond current diversification efforts?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,163],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-777000848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-finance-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777000848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777000870,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000848\/revisions\/777000870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777000848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777000848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777000848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Elsie Ao Ieong: Macau cannot remain closed to the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n