Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the economy of Macao continued to recover, driven by the thriving tourism and gaming sectors. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) leapt by 117.5% year-on-year in real terms in the second quarter of 2023, marking the highest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2021. Exports of services surged by 211.9% year-on-year, underpinned by the growth in exports of gaming services (+463.6%) and other tourism services (+157.5%). Imports of services and goods rose by 49.8% and 0.1% respectively, whereas exports of goods reduced by 32.8%. Domestic demand grew by 18.4% year-on-year, attributable to an increase of 47.8% in gross fixed capital formation. The implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, went up by 0.9% year-on-year. For the first half of 2023, GDP grew by 71.5% year-on-year in real terms, and the overall economic output of Macao returned to 71.0% of its level in the same period of 2019.
The improving economic sentiment and employment environment facilitated an increase in private consumption activities. Household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market rose by 9.7% year-on-year, and household final consumption expenditure abroad jumped by 69.2%. The overall private consumption went up by 15.1% year-on-year.
Government final consumption expenditure swelled by 3.0% year-on-year; net purchases of goods and services increased by 5.2% and compensation of employees rose by 1.6%.
Gross fixed capital formation expanded by 47.8% year-on-year, of which construction investment grew by 70.4% while equipment investment dropped by 5.3%. With the ongoing construction of public housing and the fourth Macao-Taipa bridge, public construction investment went up by 47.4% and public equipment investment rose by 70.7% year-on-year. As regards private investment, construction investment swelled by 86.6% year-on-year owing to a significant increase in investments by gaming enterprises; however, equipment investment fell by 12.9%.
With respect to merchandise trade, rising demand drove up the net import value of goods by 22.3% year-on-year.
Number of visitor arrivals in the second quarter of 2023 surged by 321.7% year-on-year to 6.7 million, corresponding to 67.5% of the visitor number in the same quarter of 2019. With a substantial rebound in visitors, exports of gaming services and exports of other tourism services leapt by 463.6% and 157.5% respectively year-on-year in the second quarter; in addition, imports of services grew by 49.8% due to an increase in residents’ outbound travel activities.