Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 32.9% year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter of 2021. The economy of Macao has showed positive growth for two consecutive quarters. Exports of services surged by 181.3% year-on-year in the third quarter, driven by a rebound in number of visitor arrivals; exports of gaming services and other tourism services soared by 302.6% and 303.3% respectively. Exports of goods recorded a year-on-year growth of 51.4%. Meanwhile, domestic demand edged down by 0.7% year-on-year, as the increase in private consumption partially offset the decline in government final consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation. Imports of goods rose by 43.7% and imports of services went up by 16.0%.
The implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, rose by 1.1% year-on-year in the third quarter.
Private consumption increased by 3.0% year-on-year, with household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market and abroad rising by 3.2% and 1.0% respectively.
Government final consumption expenditure dropped by 3.8% year-on-year as the SAR government’s expenditure on pandemic prevention and medical and health services in the third quarter of 2021 was less than that in the same quarter last year. Net purchases of goods and services went down by 6.9%, while compensation of employees increased by 0.4%.
Gross fixed capital formation decreased by 4.1% year-on-year, of which construction investment and equipment investment fell by 3.7% and 5.9% respectively. Public construction investment declined by 20.5% owing to the completion of the Qingmao boundary control point passenger terminal building and the training works for Canal dos Patos; on the other hand, equipment investment grew by 32.9%. As regards private investment, construction investment rose by 2.0% year-on-year attributable to increased investment in some large construction projects, whereas equipment investment reduced by 10.8%.
The pick-up in exports of services drove up imports of goods. Imports and exports of goods recorded respective growth of 43.7% and 51.4% year-on-year.
Number of visitor arrivals to Macao leapt by 143.6% year-on-year in the third quarter. Exports of gaming services jumped by 302.6% and exports of other tourism services ballooned by 303.3%. Meanwhile, imports of services increased by 16.0%.
For the first three quarters of 2021, GDP rose by 27.5% in real terms. In terms of the major components of GDP, private consumption expenditure went up by 9.0% while government final consumption expenditure dropped by 0.3%. Gross fixed capital formation showed a decrease of 0.9%. Exports and imports of goods surged by 159.5% and 87.7% respectively. Exports of services hiked by 102.5%, of which exports of gaming services swelled by 79.4%. Imports of services recorded a growth of 19.0%.