Tertiary sector growing in Macau

Macau’s tertiary sector accounted for 94.3 per cent of the city’s overall 2013 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) over that of the previous year, with the total gross added value reaching MOP251,242, up 22.5 per cent on 2012. The latest industrial structure survey conducted by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) reveals that the growth of Macau’s tertiary education sector has outgrown that of the secondary education sector, which recorded a slight decrease on the year. ‘In 2013, the relative importance of the tertiary sector increased while that of the secondary sector decreased further’, the survey reads, adding that ‘this was not due to the shrinkage of the secondary sector but to the robust growth in gross value added by the tertiary sector, far higher than the rise in the secondary sector, boosted by the rapid development of the gaming industry’. In addition, the structure of economic activities shows that gaming took up 46.1 per cent, making it the city’s biggest sector, followed by public administration, education and health services combined at 10.9 per cent, real estate at 8.7 per cent, retail at 7.6 per cent and banking, insurance and pension funding combined accounting for 6.2 per cent of the overall economy. “In the secondary sector, the relative importance of both manufacturing and electricity, gas and water supply dropped by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year to 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively, whilst construction fell 0.4 percentage points year-on-year to 4.4 per cent [in 2013] due to the completion of a major part of the new campus of the University of Macau’, the survey says. In addition, the growth in gross value added of all economic activities outpaced growth in gross output, bringing the ratio of gross value added to gross output up to 46 per cent in 2013, up from 44.5 per cent in 2012. ‘Owing to a slower increase in compensation of employees (+14.9 per cent) the ratio of compensation of employees to gross value added shrank by 1.8 percentage points to 29.7per cent’, according to the survey. Regarding changes in the industrial structure, gross value added of the secondary sector grew by 10.4 per cent year-on-year, lower than the rate of economic growth, bringing its relative importance to GDP down 0.6 percentage points to 5.7 per cent.