Macau’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 39.3% in the second quarter, following an 8.9% fall in the first quarter and a 69.5% rise in the same period last year.
According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), visitor arrivals fell by 27.5% year-on-year, with the number of overnight visitors dropping by 47.0%, resulting in a 48.6% year-on-year drop in service exports, with exports of gaming services and other tourism services falling by 69.6% and 41.4% respectively. The poor results can be directly attributed to Macau’s ongoing pandemic restrictions.
GDP fell by 39.3% year-on-year in 2022 Q2. In the second quarter of 2020, GDP fell by 66.3% year-on-year. At that time, Macau was under a policy of isolation from the mainland.
The economic downturn has further dampened residents’ spending, and the confirmation of new cases of COVID in Macau in late June affected local economic activities, with household consumption expenditure in Macau falling by 6.3% year-on-year, while expenditure outside Macau fell 4.1%. Overall private consumption fell by 6.6% year-on-year.
As for private investment, investment in construction fell by 48.6% year-on-year due to the drop in casino investment, while investment in equipment rose by 15.4%.
Imports and exports of goods fell by 20.0% and 36.0% year-on-year respectively, as the epidemic affected trade flows and overall demand fell.
In addition, the overall unemployment rate for May to July 2022 was 4.1%, while the unemployment rate for Macau residents was 5.4%. This was 0.4% and 0.6% higher than in April to June.
The number of unemployed persons was 15,600, up 1,700 from the previous period. Among those looking for new jobs, the majority of the unemployed were in the gaming and gaming intermediary industry and the construction industry.
