Tourist prices increase slightly

Macau’s Tourist Price Index (TPI) for the third quarter of 2017 increased slightly by 2.17 percent year-on-year to 129.61, attributable to increasing prices of local food products, taxi fares, and the costs of hotel accommodation and restaurant services.

The data, which was released this week by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), indicated that a notable rise was observed in the price indixes of Accommodation (+6.75 percent), Restaurant Services (+5.52 percent) and Entertainment & Cultural Activities (+5.13 percent).

On the contrary, the price indexes of Clothing & Footwear and Miscellaneous Goods decreased by 3.75 percent and 2.82 percent respectively year-on-year.

In comparison with the previous quarter, TPI for the third quarter of 2017 increased by 2.59 percent.

Price indexes for Accommodation, and Transport & Communications rose by 10.68 percent and 6.55 percent respectively, owing to the higher hotel room rates and airfares during the summer holidays.

Meanwhile, the seasonal sales of summer clothing and footwear drove down the price index of Clothing & Footwear by 0.26 percent quarter-to-quarter.

The average TPI for the last four quarters ending in the third quarter of 2017 fell by 1.86 percent from the previous period. There were significant decreases in the price indexes of Transport & Communications (-12.02 percent), Clothing & Footwear (-6.13 percent) and  Accommodation (-5.9 percent). For the first three quarters of 2017, TPI went down by 0.91 percent year- on-year, with a notable decline in the price indexes of Transport & Communications and Clothing & Footwear, down by 10.51 percent and 7.97 percent respectively. By contrast, the price index of Restaurant Services increased by 5.4 percent.