GDP of Macao for 2007 was estimated at US$19.20 billion, up by 27.3% in real terms and the per-capita GDP amounted to US$ 36,357. GDP for the fourth quarter of 2007 recorded an increase of 22.1% in real terms; meanwhile, the rates for the first and second quarters were revised downward from 25.7% and 31.6% to 25.2% and 30.8% respectively, but that for the third quarter was revised upward from 30.9% to 32.2%; for 2006, the rate of growth maintained at 17.0%.

The favourable factors that contributed to Macao’s relatively high economic growth in 2007 included:

- the continuous increase and improvement in the gaming and tourism facilities, rising number of visitor arrivals led the annual gross gaming revenue (excluding gratuities) soared significantly by 45.8% compared with 2006;
- the bright prospects for the prosperous gaming and tourism sector boosted the investment up by 23.0% in real terms over 2006;
- the annual number of visitor arrivals rose by 22.7% to 26,992,995, together with the increases in the per-capita spending of visitors in all quarters, total visitor spending (excluding gaming expenses) for 2007 registered a 13.9% growth in real terms;
- the notable increase in the employed population and employment income drove the annual private consumption expenditure up by 10.7% year-on-year in real terms.

Changes in the economic structure of Macao

As regards the economic structure, the following changes are observed in 2007:

- the 45.6% surge in the export of gaming services in 2007 fueled net exports of goods and services (exports of goods and services minus imports of goods and services) to accelerate at a faster pace than the level of overall economic growth, contributing to an apparent increase in the relative importance of net exports of goods and services, from 38.3% in 2006 to 43.3% in 2007;
- investment (gross fixed capital formation + changes in inventories) went up by 23.0% in 2007, lower than the overall economic growth, bringing its relative importance in GDP down from 27.5% in 2006 to 26.5% in 2007;
- although increases were registered in both private consumption expenditure and government final consumption expenditure, yet the rates of growth were lower than that of the overall economy. In consequence, the relative importance of private consumption expenditure in GDP went down from 26.2% in 2006 to 22.8% in 2007, while that of government final consumption expenditure decreased from 8.1% to 7.4%.

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Courtesy: Macau Statistics and Census Service

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