IMF expects economy to grow by 7 percent in 2018

Macau’s economy is expected to grow by 7 percent this year, a fall of 2.3 percentage points from the 9.3 percentage rate registered in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) forecasts in the World Economic Outlook, the IMF’s biannual survey on the world economy.

Last March, the Macau Statistics and Census Bureau announced that real economic growth in 2017 was 9.1 percent, with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) showing a slightly lower growth of 8.6 percent, also in real terms.

The report, published last week in Washington, forecasts economic growth of 6.1 percent in Macau in 2019 and 4.3 percent in 2023.

The IMF document includes forecasts of consumer price developments, forecasting inflation rates of 2.2 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent for Macau this year, 2019 and 2023, respectively.

Among the advanced economies, Macau has the highest projected current account surplus, with gross domestic product percentage rates of 32.1 percent. This is followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are territories with GDP surpluses as a percentage in double digits, with 33.1 percent and 34.8 percent respectively. MDT/Macauhub