The economy of Macau advanced 1.6 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018, easing from a downwardly revised 5.9 percent expansion in Q2. It was the weakest GDP growth rate since a decline in Q2 2016. Exports of services increased at a softer 6.3% (from 11.9% in Q2) due to a slowdown in sales of gaming services (5.8% from 13.4%). Contrarily, exports of goods tumbled 8.8% (from a 29.6% gain) while imports rose 2.9% (from 7.4%). Also, investment fell faster (-20.1% from -13.8%) as private investment in fixed assets dropped 17.8%, in which investment construction investment decreased by 20.6%, owing to a notable drop in large-scale construction projects and equipment investment went down by 1%. Government investment in fixed assets slumped by 32.7% amid a huge investment in infrastructure; public construction plunged 45.7% while equipment investment expanded 53%. Finally, private consumption went up 4.1% (from 5.9%) and government spending increased 5.4% (from 4.4%). GDP Annual Growth Rate in Macau averaged 8.96 percent from 2002 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 54.30 percent in the second quarter of 2004 and a record low of -24.60 percent in the second quarter of 2015.
GDP Annual Growth Rate in Macau is expected to be 6.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate GDP Annual Growth Rate in Macau to stand at 6.70 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Macau GDP Annual Growth Rate is projected to trend around 4.90 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.