Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 2.1% year-on-year in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2018, slightly higher than the 1.9% increase in the third quarter. Economic growth in the fourth quarter was mainly driven by exports of services. External demand maintained growth; exports of services went up by 5.2% year-on-year, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services rising by 6.7% and 1.4% respectively; exports of goods increased by 10.2%. Domestic demand remained sluggish, with investment plunging by 14.3% year-on-year; meanwhile, private consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure and imports of goods showed respective growth of 2.8%, 3.4% and 2.3%.
For the whole year of 2018, the economy of Macao grew by 4.7% year-on-year in real terms, but the pace of growth slowed notably. Exports of services and private consumption expenditure were the main drivers of economic growth. The rate of economic growth was 7.6% in the first half year of 2018 and slowed to 2.0% in the second half year. In 2018, domestic demand weakened, falling by 1.7% year-on-year; gross fixed capital formation declined by 12.5% owing to a significant decrease in private construction investment. On the other hand, increases in total employment, employment earnings and government expenditure boosted private consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure and imports of goods by 4.5%, 3.8% and 4.7% respectively, which offset the impact of declined investment. External demand showed modest growth; exports of services, underpinned by increased visitor arrivals and spending, went up by 9.4% year-on-year, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services rising by 10.3% and 9.4% respectively; exports of goods saw an increase of 11.0%.
In 2018, GDP amounted to MOP440.3 billion and per-capita GDP was MOP666,893 (approximately USD82,609). Meanwhile, the implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, rose by 3.6% in 2018 and 3.3% in the fourth quarter.
As regards GDP structure by major components, the relative importance of net exports of goods and services to GDP rose by 3.5 percentage points from 46.9% in 2017 to 50.5% in 2018. By contrast, the relative importance of domestic demand to GDP dropped by 3.5 percentage points to 49.5% in 2018 as the share of investment decreased by 3.2 percentage points; moreover, the proportions of private consumption expenditure and government final consumption expenditure fell marginally by 0.3 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points respectively.
Meanwhile, economic growth for the first quarter of 2018 was revised downward to 9.3%, whereas the growth rates for the second and third quarters were revised upward to 6.0% and 1.9% respectively.