GDP soars 15.7% in H1

The local gross domestic product (GDP) has recorded a significant growth of 15.7% in the first six months of this year, information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicates.

According to DSEC, the GDP expanded by 15.7% year-on-year in real terms to MOP204.3 billion in the first half of 2024, surpassing for the first time the MOP200 billion mark since the first half (H1) of 2019.

In the same release, the DSEC noted the overall economic output had returned to 86.2% of the level seen in the first six months of 2019.

Exports of services and domestic demand (including private consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure, and investment) showed respective growth of 17.6% and 2.8% year-on-year, the same report said, adding that exports of services continued to thrive on account of the increases in the number of visitor arrivals and tourism activities.

Exports of gaming services and exports of other tourism services swelled by 39.9% and 2.8% year-on-year respectively, and exceeded their corresponding levels in the same period in 2019 by over 20%.

On the other hand, imports of services decreased by 6.2%.

Concerning merchandise trade, exports and imports of goods dropped by 15.9% and 3.3% year-on-year respectively.

As mentioned earlier, the private consumption expenditure has been accountable for the general growth, showing a y-o-y rise of 7.8% in H1.

This was said to be driven by a rise in the income of residents amid the improving local economy and labor market.

Household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market and abroad grew by 7% and 13.5% respectively, while government final consumption expenditure was reduced by 14% y-o-y following the cessation of the livelihood subsidy scheme.

Net purchases of goods and services fell by 31.3% while compensation of employees went up by 1%.

In the same period, gross fixed capital formation rose by 9.8% y-o-y, as enterprises continued to step up their investments in Macau amid an improving business environment.

Private equipment investment recorded a growth of 29.8% y-o-y while private construction investment went up by 14.7% owing to a continued rise in the investments in residential building construction and large-scale construction projects of integrated resort enterprises.

Concurrently, government equipment investment surged by 69.9% while public construction investment dipped by 10.8% due to the completion of several large-scale public works.

Steady growth

quarter-to-quarter

Analyzed by quarter, GDP expanded by 6.9% in the second quarter (Q2), when compared with the same quarter last year in real terms.

This happened due to a relatively high base of comparison in the same quarter last year; the overall economic output recovered to 85.2% of its size in the same quarter of 2019.

Exports of services, the key area of economic growth, increased by 6.1% y-o-y, with exports of gaming services rising by 22.6%.

On the other hand, exports of other tourism services fell by 9.5%, mainly due to a high comparison base resulting from the release of the contained demand of visitors amid the gradual relaxation of travel policies during the same period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, domestic demand rose by 2.2% with private consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation expanding by 4.8% and 6.7% respectively.

Contrasting with these results was the government’s final consumption expenditure, which decreased by 7.3%.

The implicit deflator of GDP, which measures the overall changes in prices, went up by 0.9%.