MACAU, 19 Apr – Macau’s tourist price index (TPI) rose 14.58 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced Monday.
A DSEC statement attributed the steep rise to a range of "notable" price hikes, such as accommodation (up 32.05 percent year-on-year); food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco (up 10.21 percent); and restaurant services (up 7.35 percent).
Accommodation services contributed 8.7 percentage points to the TIP increase, according to the statement that singled out "soaring" hotel room rates and restaurant charges during the Lunar New Year, as well as higher prices of food and gold jewellery.
However, entertainment prices dropped 0.92 percent and prices of clothing and footwear decreased 0.87 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.
Quarter-to-quarter, the TPI was up 4.74 percent in the first quarter.
The TPI strives to reflect the price changes of goods and services purchased by visitors, the statement said.
The first-quarter TPI was released ahead of the consumer price index for the same period. In the first two months, the average composite consumer price index (CPI) was up 4.81 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the number of hotel guests decreased by 0.2 percent year-on-year to 1.24 million in the first two months of this year, when hotels’ average room occupancy rate stood at 80.9 percent, up one percentage point from a year earlier.
(MacauNews)
