Gaming slowdown crimps Macau’s GDP for 2Q

Aug 29, 2014 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Macau’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down in the second quarter of 2014, affected by a lacklustre performance of the city’s gaming industry.

GDP increased 8.1 percent in real terms (adjusted for inflation) in the three months through June from a year earlier. That was slower than the 12.4 percent growth for the previous three months, the city’s Statistics and Census Service said.

It was the slowest GDP growth rate since it expanded by 6.9 percent in the last quarter of 2012.

“Exports of gaming services shrank notably, down by 0.5 percent year-on-year [in real terms],” the statistics bureau said.

The last time exports of gaming services contracted in Macau was in the third quarter of 2012, and then only by 0.1 percent.

Gaming services in Macau are included in exports for GDP purposes to reflect expenditure made by tourists in the city’s casinos.

Casino gross gaming revenue in Macau was MOP90.9 billion (US$11.4 billion) in the second quarter of 2014 compared with MOP86.2 billion one year earlier, show data from the city’s gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Inflation for the year ended June stood at 5.95 percent.

Macau’s economy is highly reliant on exports of gaming services. They were equivalent to 79 percent of the city’s GDP for the three months to June 30.

In the first half year of 2014, the Macau economy expanded by 10.2 percent in year-on-year terms.

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