News

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) held its Annual Press Conference today (15 January), indicating that total visitor arrivals to Macao went up by 10.1% to over 39.4 million in 2019, as revealed by preliminary figures. There was an increase in both the figures of same-day visitors and overnight-stay visitors. Looking forward in 2020, MGTO will be committed to advance smart tourism development, promote multi-destination travel and conduct a review of the Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan (“Master Plan”) to steer Macao’s tourism industry toward diversification and sustainability, delivering tourism’s impact in driving the economy forward.
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The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP178.3 billion (USD22.22 billion) at the end of December 2019. The reserves increased by 4.3% from the revised value of MOP170.9 billion (USD21.20 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-December 2019 represented 11 times the currency in circulation or 85.6% of pataca M2 at end-November 2019.
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The University of Macau’s (UM) Centre for Macau Studies (CMS) and Department of Economics today announced the completion of the first phase of the Macao Economic Database Project. The project aims to create a comprehensive database that includes all the major economic indicators of Macao. It is expected to help researchers, students, and the public to better understand Macao’s economic and social development to enable them to take more effective actions that will raise the quality of life of Macao residents.
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The University of Macau’s (UM) Centre for Macau Studies and Department of Economics today (14 January) held an event to release the 2020 macroeconomic forecast for Macao and an opening ceremony for the Macao Economic Database. Statistics show that Macao’s economy continued to deteriorate in 2019 amid the economic slowdown in mainland China. Negative growth was recorded for three consecutive quarters. The year-on-year growth rates were -3.8% in the first quarter, -2.2% in the second quarter and -4.5% in the third quarter, respectively (Figure 1 and 2).
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the Tourist Price Index (TPI) for the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 0.22% year-on-year to 139.50, on account of lower hotel room rates and falling prices of handbags and clothing; yet, rising charges for restaurant services as well as dearer prices of gold jewellery and local food products offset part of the decrease. Among the various sections of goods and services, price indices of Clothing & Footwear (-5.87%) and Accommodation (-2.39%) dropped significantly, while the indices of Food, Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+3.04%), Entertainment & Cultural Activities (+3.02%), Miscellaneous Goods (+2.59%) and Restaurant Services (+2.29%) saw year-on-year increases.
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The 19^th Macao City Fringe Festival, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from its Portuguese acronym), continues to present more exciting programmes this week under the theme “Boundless creation will show you around!”, guiding the audience on a journey full of fantasy through the streets and alleys of Macao. More intriguing performances will be presented in the “Puppet and Object Theatre Festival in Coloane”, featuring a rich variety of programmes for the audience in the weekend. Limited tickets are available for some of the programmes and interested parties are advised to purchase tickets as soon as possible.
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To further promote the community’s concern about integrity education, foster educational and professional exchanges and improve the quality of integrity education, the CCAC launches the “Integrity Lesson Plan Design Collection Activity” for all teaching staff and higher education students in Macao.
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