ANALYSTS: GOV’T BUDGET FOR 2022 ‘TOO OPTIMISTIC, UNREAL’

Local analysts consider the budget proposal for 2022 submitted by the government to the Legislative Assembly (AL) to be too optimistic, and likely to suffer amendment later on.

The president of the Macau Institute of Management Samuel Tong finds the budget for 2022 a little too optimistic. Tong thinks that the government should have been more cautious, especially given the forecasted gross gaming revenue (GGR).

For two consecutive days at the AL late last week, the Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong reaffirmed the content in the budgeted proposal paper that estimates a GGR of around 130 billion patacas for both this year and into 2022.

“The GGR forecast for the next year is of 130 billion patacas, which is basically the same as the forecast for this year. [However], we can see that this year and, especially in [the wake of] last month [October] where we got very affected by the [Covid-19] pandemic, the GGR was only around 4 billion patacas. [This] leads us to forecast a total receipt at the end of this year of just 80 billion patacas,” Tong said in an interview to TDM. He noted that this figure is significantly lower than the 130 billion patacas forecast by the government.

Source: https://macaudailytimes.com.mo/analysts-govt-budget-for-2022-