Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the economy of Macao expanded by 10.3% year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of 2017, higher than the growth in the previous quarter (7.0%), attributable to the improving exports of services and investment, as well as a relatively lower base of comparison in the first quarter of last year. External demand continued to expand, pushing up exports of services by 13.4%, in which exports of gaming services and other tourism services grew by 11.3% and 20.9% year-on-year respectively; exports of goods also rose by 9.7%. Meanwhile, domestic demand increased as private consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure and investment grew by 1.6%, 4.8% and 4.6% respectively; imports of goods also went up by 5.2%. The implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, edged up by 0.5% year-on-year.
Private consumption increased mildly. A year-on-year increase of 1.6% was recorded on account of stable employment situation, easing inflation and festive seasonal spending, ending the downward trend of private consumption expenditure in the preceding quarter. Household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market and abroad grew by 1.3% and 4.9% respectively.
Government final consumption expenditure registered a larger increase. Compared to the zero growth in the previous quarter, government final consumption expenditure rose by 4.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017, of which compensation of employees and net purchases of goods and services grew by 3.7% and 6.5% respectively.
Investment continued to improve. Gross fixed capital formation, the gauge of investment, increased by 4.6% year-on-year, higher than the 0.2% growth in the last quarter. Private investment rose slightly by 1.0%, in which the growth in construction investment narrowed to 3.3% due to a slowdown in the investment in large-scale tourism and entertainment facilities; meanwhile, equipment investment contracted by 13.3%. As regards government investment, public construction and equipment investment jumped by 73.9% and 132.6% respectively year-on-year, leading to an apparent growth of 75.3% in government investment.
Merchandise trade rebounded. With the year-on-year increases in private consumption, investment and visitors’ spending, exports and imports of goods rose by 9.7% and 5.2% respectively year-on-year after five consecutive quarters of decline.
Service trade became key impetus to economic growth. The growth rate of total exports of services accelerated from 8.2% in the previous quarter to 13.4% in the first quarter of 2017, due to increasing visitors and higher visitors’ spending. Exports of gaming services grew by 11.3% and exports of other tourism services also went up by 20.9%. Meanwhile, imports of services rose by 6.9%, higher than the 1.6% growth in the preceding quarter.