Macau’s gross domestic product grew 10.3 percent year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of the year, according to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC).
A DSEC statement attributed the return to double-digit growth to the “improving exports of services and investments, as well as a relatively lower base of comparison in the first quarter of last year.”
External demand continued to expand, pushing up exports of services by 13.4 percent, in which exports of gaming services and other tourism services grew 11.3 percent and 20.9 percent year on year respectively. Exports of goods, mostly re-exports, rose 9.7 percent. Domestic demand, investment and imports of goods also increased.
The statement said that “service trade became a key impetus to economic growth”.
Government final consumption expenditure registered a large increase. Compared to the zero growth in the previous quarter, government final consumption expenditure rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017, of which compensation of employees and net purchases of goods and services grew by 3.7 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.
