Macau’s Gross Domestic Product plummeted by 33.4% year-on-year in the three months to 30 September 2022 as the city’s COVID wave and subsequent lack of visitors impacted the provision of gaming and tourism services.
According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), Macau’s 18 June outbreak and resulting restrictions in the weeks that followed led to a 50.8% decline in visitor numbers, which in turn saw exports of services fall by 46.7% year-on-year.
Of those, exports of gaming services fell by 72.5% and tourism services by 45.9% – highlighting Macau’s reliance on its gaming and tourism industries.
News of the GDP decline in Q3 comes just days after Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng stated in his 2023 Policy Address that he wants 60% of Macau’s GDP to come from non-gaming activities.
DSEC said domestic demand slid by 14.4% year-on-year, “dragged down by a drop in gross fixed capital formation and private consumption expenditure.”
“With the local economic activity being affected by the ‘relatively static’ control measures implemented in July, household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market and abroad dropped by 13.3% and 12.2% year-on-year respectively,” it said. “The overall private consumption expenditure fell by 13.3% year-on-year.”
One of the few areas to see an increase was government final consumption expenditure, which grew by 5.7% year-on-year due to its healthcare subsidy scheme and pandemic prevention measures.
It also committed 19.6% more to public construction investment in 3Q22.
For the first nine months of 2022 combined Macau’s, GDP has fallen by 27.8% in real terms, with private consumption expenditure down by 7.8% and government final consumption expenditure down by 1.1%, DSEC said.
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