Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 4.4% year-on-year in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2021. External demand remained steady; exports of services edged down by 0.3% year-on-year, of which exports of gaming services fell by 14.4% while exports of other tourism services rose by 8.9%. Exports of goods increased by 7.7%. As regards domestic demand, gross fixed capital formation decreased by 8.7% year-on-year, whereas private consumption expenditure and government final consumption expenditure grew by 0.4% and 1.3% respectively.
The pandemic situation of novel coronavirus pneumonia in 2021 remained volatile but improved compared to 2020. With a pickup in total demand, the economy of Macao grew by 18.0% year-on-year in real terms in 2021. Domestic demand rose by 3.0% year-on-year. Local economic activities of Macao residents have basically recovered, with private consumption expenditure expanding by 7.0% year-on-year. Government final consumption expenditure went up by 0.1%, of which compensation of employees increased by 1.2% while net purchases of goods and services decreased by 1.1%. On the other hand, gross fixed capital formation dropped by 1.8% year-on-year due to a fall in private construction investment. With respect to external demand, exports of gaming services and other tourism services surged by 45.0% and 127.2% year-on-year respectively, driven by a rebound in the number of visitor arrivals to Macao; as a result, exports of services leapt by 62.1%. Meanwhile, exports of goods showed an uplift of 91.0%.
In 2021, GDP amounted to MOP239.4 billion and per-capita GDP was MOP350,445 (approximately USD43,774). Besides, the implicit deflator of GDP, which measures overall changes in prices, dropped by 0.7% year-on-year in 2021 but rose by 0.3% in the fourth quarter.
The rates of change of GDP for the first, second and third quarters of 2021 were revised upward to -1.2%, 70.9% and 33.8% respectively.