The Macau government announced Wednesday that its fiscal reserves fell to around MOP$558 billion (US$69.1 billion) at the end of 2022, down 13.2% from MOP$643.2 billion (US$79.6 billion) a year earlier.
Impacted by the loss of tax revenue from the gaming and leisure industry as a result of COVID-19-induced travel restrictions, basic reserves fell by 26% on the previous year to MOP$185.1 billion (US$22.9 billion) and excess reserves by 33% to MOP$372.8 billion (US$46.1 billion).
The Monetary Authority of Macao noted that the fiscal reserves of the Macau SAR were also weighed down by negative factors such as the geopolitical crisis, the pandemic disrupting the global supply chain and the significant interest rate hikes by major central banks, and recorded a book loss of MOP$20.75 billion (US$2.57 billion) for the year, with an annual rate of return of -3.4%.
However, the it also pointed out that from 2017 to 2021 its fiscal reserves recorded a total book profit of MOP$95.18 billion (US$11.8 billion).
The Macau government twice used its excess reserves in 2022 to deal with the pandemic situation, accessing a total of MOP$72.7 billion (US$9.0 billion). At the same time it only collected MOP19.1 billion (US$2.36 billion) in gaming taxes in 2022.
Fiscal reserves in 2019, prior to the pandemic, were MOP$579.4 billion (US$71.7 billion), rising to MOP$616.12 billion (US$76.3 billion) in 2020 after benefiting from investment return and to MOP$643.17 billion (US$79.6 billion) in 2021.
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