Tough times to persist in Macau, Moody’s warns

Macau’s struggling gaming market may have bottomed out after posting almost two years of continuous declines in monthly gambling revenues but credit-debt watcher Moody’s Investors Service warns that tough times to persist over the next three years.

The gambling-driven economy of Macau will see a 6 percent contraction year-on-year in 2016 amid falling gaming revenue, according to Moodys. It added that the rate of decline will be carried over in 2017 – albeit at a slower pace of 2.5 percent.

Moody’s also suggests that Macau will see a considerable deceleration from the robust 13.7% annual average GDP growth rate achieved during 2011-2015 period.

“We expect that growth will continue to contract over our rating horizon of the next two to three years, although the pace of decline should slow,” said Moody’s in its annual credit analysis of Macau.