Macau is rated as AA
Financial recovery of Chinese gaming hub has upgrated the city’s status to AA.
Macau.- Thanks to the casino industry in Macau recovering in the past few months following a two-year financial crisis, national economic authorities have upgraded Macau’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to AA from AA-, as confirmed by the regional newspaper AGBrief during this weekend.
“The Macao authorities have demonstrated a commitment to fiscal prudence through a period of gaming windfalls and a heavy revenue shock. As a result, the territory’s fiscal and external balance sheets have strengthened to levels that more than offset the significant risks associated with its narrow economic base and concentration on mainland Chinese gaming tourism,” reads the statement published by Fitch Ratings days ago.
Macau real GDP grew by 8.7 per cent last year, showing the gaming hub has recovered from the financial decline. “The improved growth performance can be attributed largely to a pick-up in gaming activity, though private consumption has also stabilized. Territory-wide gaming revenues rose by 19 percent in 2017, after a 3.3 per cent contraction in the year prior,” added the statement.
2018 kicked off with great results in Macau, as the region’s gross gaming revenue went up 36.4 per cent in January to €2.58 billion. This increase is the highest year-on-year improvement since 2014 (just before the regulatory crackdown in the gambling hub.)
