Macau - Pato la Taifa mwaka Kiwango cha Ukuaji

Macau's GDP shrank 1.8 percent year-on-year in Q2 2019, after a 3.2 percent contraction in the prior period. It was the second straight quarterly decline, as fixed investment continued to slid (-25% vs -31.7% in Q1), owing to a 30.1% fall in construction investment. Public investment in construction plunged 51.6%, as a result of the relatively high comparison basis due to the huge investment launched by the government in the same period last year in the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Artificial Border Island. Also, private investment slid by 19.3% on lower investment in large-scale construction projects and a drop in number of new residential projects. Meantime, total exports fell (-0.3% vs -0.4%), dragged down by goods (-24.4%) and gaming services (-0.8%). Total imports also slumped (-4.6% vs -5.0%), namely goods (-0.8) and services (-13.7%). In contrast, private consumption (2.2% vs 2.1%) and government spending (5.7% vs 4.1%) advanced faster.

The economy of Macau shrank 3.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, following a 2.1 percent expansion in the previous quarter. That was the first economic contraction since the second quarter of 2016, mainly due to a decline in exports of services (-0.3 percent vs 5.2 percent in Q4), in particular gaming services (-0.6 percent) and other tourism services (-0.3 percent), as well as a steep fall in fixed investment (-31.7 percent vs -14.3 percent) due to a 37.5 percent drop in construction investment. In addition, the completion of the Macau boundary crossing area of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge led to a 82.3 percent plunge in public construction investment. On the other hand, private consumption growth slowed (2.1 percent vs 2.8 percent) while government spending continued to increase at a solid pace (4.1 percent vs 3.4 percent).

The economy of Macau advanced 2.1% yoy in Q4 2018, higher than an upwardly revised 1.9% expansion in Q3 which was the weakest since a contraction in 2016. Service trade remained the major driving force of economic growth. Exports of services rose 5.2% (6.2% in Q3) while shipments of goods rebounded (10.2% vs -8.1% in Q3). Also, imports of services shrank 1.7% (+1.7% in Q3) and those of goods went up 2.3% (0.9% in Q3). On the other hand, slowdown was observed for private consumption (2.8% vs 4.2%), government spending (3.4% vs 5.7%) and inventories (12.1% vs 16.1%). Also, investment continued to fall (-14.3% vs -21.4%) as private investment shrank 20.4%, due to notable drop in large-scale construction projects while public investment went up 4%. Considering full 2018, the economy advanced 4.7%, below 9.7% in 2017.