page_title: Macau
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Macau / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Ruins of Saint Paul's
context_page_description: Macau, also spelled Macao, and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a city in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. It is a special administrative region of China and maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China. With a population of 649,335 and an area of 32.9 km², it is the most densely populated region in the world.
  Macau was a former colony of the Portuguese Empire, after Ming China leased the territory as a trading post in 1557. Portugal paid an annual rent and administered the territory under Chinese sovereignty until 1887 when it gained perpetual colonial rights in the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 1999, when it was transferred to China.
  Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands, the territory has become a major resort city and the top destination for gambling tourism. Its gambling industry is seven times larger than that of Las Vegas. Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, it has severe income inequality.
context_section_description: Macau has a capitalist service economy largely based on casino gaming and tourism. It is the world's 83rd-largest economy, with a nominal GDP of approximately MOP433 billion (US$53.9 billion). Although Macau has one of the highest per capita GDPs, the territory also has a high level of wealth disparity. Macau's gaming industry is the largest in the world, generating over MOP195 billion (US$24 billion) in revenue and about seven times larger than that of Las Vegas. Macau's gambling revenue was $37 billion in 2018.
  The regional economy is heavily reliant on casino gaming. The vast majority of government funding (79.6 per cent of total tax revenue) comes from gaming. Gambling as a share of GDP peaked in 2013 at over 60 per cent, and continues to account for 49.1 per cent of total economic output. The vast majority of casino patrons are tourists from mainland China, making up 68 per cent of all visitors. Casino gaming is illegal in both the mainland and Hong Kong, giving Macau a legal monopoly on the industry in China. Revenue from Chinese high rollers has been falling and was forecast to fall as much as 10% more in 2019. Economic uncertainty may account for some of the drop, but alternate Asian gambling venues do as well. For example, Chinese visitors to the Philippines more than doubled between 2015 and 2018, since the City of Dreams casino opened in Manila.
  Casino gambling was legalised in 1962 and the gaming industry initially operated under a government-licensed monopoly granted to the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. This license was renegotiated and renewed several times before ending in 2002 after 40 years. The government then allowed open bidding for casino licenses to attract foreign investors. Along with an easing of travel restrictions on mainland Chinese visitors, this triggered a period of rapid economic growth; from 1999 to 2016, Macau's gross domestic product multiplied by 7 and the unemployment rate dropped from 6.3 to 1.9 per cent. The Sands Macao, Wynn Macau, MGM Macau, and Venetian Macau were all opened during the first decade after liberalisation of casino concessions. Casinos employ about 24 per cent of the total workforce in the region. "Increased competition from casinos popping up across Asia to lure away Chinese high rollers and tourists" in Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam and the Russian Far East led in 2019 to the lowest revenues in three years.
  Export-oriented manufacturing previously contributed to a much larger share of economic output, peaking at 36.9 per cent of GDP in 1985 and falling to less than 1 per cent in 2017. The bulk of these exports were cotton textiles and apparel, but also included toys and electronics. At the transfer of sovereignty in 1999, manufacturing, financial services, construction and real estate, and gaming were the four largest sectors of the economy. Macau's shift to an economic model entirely dependent on gaming caused concern over its overexposure to a single sector, prompting the regional government to attempt re-diversifying its economy.
  The government traditionally had a non-interventionist role in the economy and taxes corporations at very low rates. Post-handover administrations have generally been more involved in enhancing social welfare to counter the cyclical nature of the gaming industry. Economic growth has been attributed in large part to the high number of mainlander visits to Macau, and the central government exercises a role in guiding casino business growth through its control of the flow of tourists. The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement formalised a policy of free trade between Macau and mainland China, with each jurisdiction pledging to remove remaining obstacles to trade and cross-boundary investment.
  Due to a lack of available land for farming, agriculture is not significant in the economy. Food is exclusively imported to Macau and almost all foreign goods are transshipped through Hong Kong.
caption: The ruins of Saint Paul's, a religious complex built in the 17th century, are now a popular tourist attraction
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4624", "Image Model": "Redmi Note 8 Pro", "Image ImageLength": "3472", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2020:01:18 13:46:35", "Image ExifOffset": "154", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[22, 11, 5051/100]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[113, 32, 714/25]", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[5, 46, 33]", "GPS GPSDate": "2020:01:18", "Image GPSInfo": "409", "Image Make": "Xiaomi", "EXIF FNumber": "189/100", "EXIF FocalLength": "543/100", "EXIF ExposureTime": "203/250000", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF Tag 0x9999": "{\"mirror\":false,\"sensor_type\":\"rear\",\"Hdr\":\"off\",\"OpMode\":36869}", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "101", "EXIF Tag 0x8895": "0", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3472", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4624", "EXIF ApertureValue": "46/25", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-513/50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "818"}