Economy | Per capita GNI down 16 percent in 2015

Macau’s Gross National Income (GNI) for the year of 2015 reached MOP333.58 billion, according to a statement released on Friday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). In per capita terms, GNI in 2015 was about MOP520,000, while per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was just over MOP565,300.

For the previous year of 2014, GNI amounted to a total of MOP380.23 billion, while the per capita GNI registered about MOP612,000, which the DSEC reported at that point of time, was a 1.8 percent increase in real terms. Meanwhile, for 2015, per capita GNI contracted by more than 16 percent in real terms.

GNI refers to the total income earned by residents of an economy across various activities within or outside the economy. It corresponds to GDP plus income earned by resident investors abroad, minus income earned by non-resident investors in Macau.

In 2015, GNI stood around eight percent lower than GDP, which recorded about MOP362.64 billion, less than the 14.3 percent gap registered in 2014.

As per the same statement, the total outflow of external factor income, which reflects income earned by non-resident enterprises and investors from investment in the MSAR, dropped by about one-third year-on-year in 2015 to MOP65.77 billion. The decline is attributed by DSEC to a near 40 percent decrease in direct investment income (MOP51.33 billion) during the year. On the other hand, portfolio investment income (MOP965 million) and other investment income (MOP11.55 billion) increased by 27.1 percent and 12.2 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the total inflow of external factor income, or that which is earned by resident enterprises and investors from abroad, rose by 5.3 percent year-on-year to MOP36.71 billion in 2015. DSEC attributes the rise to an 8.4 percent increase in portfolio investment income (MOP14.39 billion) and a 3.8 percent increase in other investment income (MOP20.15 billion) earned from abroad. At the same time, direct investment income also increased to a total of MOP938 million, increasing by 14.2 percent year-on-year in 2015.

After discounting the effect of price changes, GNI and GDP in 2015 fell by 13.5 percent and 21.5 percent year-on-year respectively in real terms. For the same period, per capita GNI and per capita GDP collapsed by around 16.2 percent and 23.9 percent respectively. The rate of decrease in GNI in real terms was smaller than that in GDP in 2015, notes DSEC. DB