The economy of Macao in 2016 shrank by 2.1 percent year-on-year in real terms, which improved from the 21.5 percent drop in 2015, the special administrative region's statistics agency said on Thursday.
Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said the economic contraction in 2016 was mainly due to the weakening of total demand.
Domestic demand slackened, diminishing by 5.8 percent year-on-year, and the private consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation reduced by 1.3 percent and 13.3 percent respectively whereas government final consumption expenditure rose by 1.7 percent.
External demand recovered significantly in the second half of 2016, with total exports of services declining at a slower rate of 2.5 percent amid continued growth in visitor arrivals and spending. Exports of gaming services and exports of other tourism services shrank by 4.4 percent and 1.0 percent respectively whereas exports of goods dropped by 21.8 percent, DSEC said in its report issued on Thursday.
According to DSEC, the economy of Macao contracted by 9.7 percent in the first half of 2016, followed by a rebound of 5.7 percent in the second half.
In 2016, Macao's GDP amounted to 358.2 billion patacas and per-capita GDP was 554,619 patacas (about 69,372 U.S. dollars ).
