Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue has already made a meteoric plunge in the first five months of 2016 but this is not enough to make Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac to tremble in fear.

The reason for Leong’s optimistic outlook is simple – the data in the first five months suggest that Macau’s struggling gaming market has already bottomed out after posting almost two years of continuous declines in monthly gambling revenues.

GGR Asia reported that Macau has stood pat on its forecast for the city’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) at MOP200 billion (US$25 billion) for 2016, with Leong telling local media last Wednesday that the slumping casino GGR figures in the first five months of 2016 is “within the government’s expectations.”

Data fromthe Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau shows that the accumulated casino GGR of Macau in the first five months plunged by 11.9 percent to MOP91.91 billion ($11.5 billion) from the prior-year period.Casino revenue declined by 9.6 percent year-on-year in May, marking 24 consecutive months of declines when measured in year-on-year terms.