According to the Macroeconomic Forecast for Macao 2023 by the Centre for Macau Studies (CMS), and Department of Economics of the university, the city’s economy will rise somewhere between the range of 20.5 per cent to 44.1 per cent, while exports of services will increase between 35.2 per cent and 82.8 per cent.

The final revenue of the Macao SAR government will remain at around MOP 55.4 billion to MOP 66.1 billion, the university said.

“Macao’s economic recovery is also expected to be more obvious, especially in the second half of the year,” its researchers stressed.

The conclusion was drawn based on three different scenarios envisaged by a research team at the university, with the best scenario pointing to a recovery of 67 per cent of the 2019 level in terms of GDP, which could rebound to MOP253.3 billion.

When it comes to exports of services, the best scenario put forth by the research team suggests an 82.8 per cent recovery. The researchers also made three other scenarios regarding visitor arrivals, which they believe could number a total of 10.75 million this year in the less optimistic situation.

The city logged close to 40 million tourists in 2019.

During a meeting on government economic policies today, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said that the domestic economy had gained steam after three years of Covid restrictions, with multiple positive signs on the way, citing tourist figures during the Lunar New Year holiday when over 450,000 visitor arrivals were logged.

Macau posted an 82.5% year-on-year increase in gaming revenue to MOP11.6 billion last month, the first year-on-year increase since February last year, and the highest monthly revenue since January 2020 when Covid started to wreak economic havoc.

By Aries Un