Inward direct investment – from outside investors – into Macau’s gaming sector jumped to nearly MOP43.31 billion (US$5.43 billion) in 2019, show official data published on Tuesday. That is an increase of 128.3 percent from the previous year, according to information from the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
The data indicated that the city’s gaming sector accounted for 80.2 percent of the aggregate flows of inward foreign direct investment in 2019, while banking and finance was a distant second, with a share of 12.6 percent.
Last year, Macau recorded a total inward direct investment of MOP53.99 billion, up by 167.8 percent year-on-year, “as foreign direct investors made loans to gaming enterprises and reinvested their profits in the gaming sector,” said the statistics bureau.
In 2019, aggregate income of inward direct investment rose by 8.6 percent year-on-year to MOP80.33 billion, underpinned partially by increased income in the gaming sector – up 6.1 percent year-on-year, to MOP45.19 billion.
A number of outside investors in Macau’s gaming sector was registered either in Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands or the Cayman Islands.
What economists term “stock” of inward direct investment to Macau reached MOP346.63 billion by the end of last year, with gaming accounting for about 52.3 percent of the total.
A separate set of data published by the city’s statistics bureau last month showed that the gross value added by the gaming industry to Macau’s economy went up by 0.3 percent year-on-year in 2019, to MOP205.06 billion.
