Macau’s Composite CPI for June 2008 rose by 9.05% year-on-year to 124.72, of which the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Health and Transport soared by 18.16%, 14.63% and 12.94% respectively.

Among the subgroups of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of canned meat (+83.32%), fresh beef (+75.08%), rice (+69.54%), edible oil (+55.94%), fresh pork (+45.46%), chilled or frozen pork (+41.22%), fresh water fish (+36.01%), noodles (+30.43%), vegetables (+18.66%) and charges for meals bought away from home (+15.35%). For the subgroups of Health and Transport, charges for medical consultation service (+25.65%) and prices of unleaded gasoline (+32.75%) registered marked increase. Despite Government’s pay out of electricity subsidy to all households, the price index of Housing & fuels rose by 7.96%, as a result of the substantial surge in the prices of LP Gas (+26.47%), charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+27.18%) and rentals for housing (+14.87%).

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Macau visitor arrivals in June 2008 totalled 2,343,451, a year-on-year increase of 22.0%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,358,912), Hong Kong (622,290) and Southeast Asia (128,058) rose by 36.6%, 0.6% and 42.3% respectively. Same-day visitors took up 53.1% of the total visitor arrivals, at 1,245,403.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which accounted for 58.0%, 26.6% and 5.5% of the total respectively. In view of the tightening of the Individual Visit Scheme, 490,727 Mainland visitors travelled to Macao under such policy in June, representing 36.1% of the visitor arrivals from Mainland China.

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Chan Meng Ieng, wife of imprisoned former Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) high-ranking official Ao Man Long was sentenced to 23 years in prison by the SAR’s Court of First Instance (TJB) Wednesday.

Chan along with three of Ao’s family members and three business associates were convicted of money laundering and bribery, according to the verdict. The trial of the case began in January this year.

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In the first quarter of 2008, performance of the gaming sector continued to stay vibrant, with gross gaming revenue (excluding gratuities) soaring substantially by 61.8% in nominal terms compared with the same quarter of 2007, while total visitor spending (excluding gaming expenses) rose slightly by 4.3%; gross fixed capital formation dropped by 17.6% upon successive completion of large-scale construction projects, and exports of goods fell by 11.2%. Taking all relevant data together, GDP for the first quarter of 2008 expanded by 31.6% in real terms, higher than the 22.1% growth in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In terms of major GDP components, private consumption expenditure in the first quarter of 2008 increased by 9.6%, lower than the 9.7% growth in the previous quarter. Household final consumption expenditure in the domestic market rose by 8.6%, while that abroad fell slightly by 1.7%, with the expenditure in Mainland China amounting to MOP 606 million.

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Macau received 7.5 million visitors in the first quarter of 2008, which was a rise of 17.9 percent against the same period of 2007.

The number of visitors from mainland China was 4.38 million, which was a rise of 22.6 percent, while the number of visitors from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia rose 3.3 and 63.3 percent, respectively.

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The peg of the pataca to the Hong Kong dollar is an established policy of the Government and will not be changed for a long time, the Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah, said when he attended a plenary session of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon.

Mr Ho, who was answering legislators’ questions, said he understood that the increasing exchange rate of RMB had stimulated inflation; however, the pataca’s link exchange rate relationship with the Hong Kong dollar will not be changed in order to maintain financial stability.

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More than one rally which were originally planned to be staged on May 1 demanding measures to tackle illegal workers as well as soaring living costs could be called off after the Chief Executive announced the two-billion pataca subsidy for Macau residents on Tuesday, reports Macau Daily Times.

According to lawmaker and chief member of the New Macau Association, Au Kam San, the latest government announcement of distributing a one-time 5,000 pataca or 3,000 pataca subsidy to every permanent and non-permanent resident in July did “cool down the May 1 rally sentiment”.

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Macau’s financial health is solid although there are some risks that make the territory vulnerable to external shocks, according to US ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service.

“Macau’s solid fiscal position has produced considerable public sector surpluses over the past five years and because it does not have any public debt that needs to be repaid, its budget surpluses are all saved,” said Steven Hess, senior credit analysts of Moody’s sovereign risk unit.

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