Brief Introduction

I. Data in this chapter reflect the major social and economic development of the Macao Special Administrative Region, including land; population; employment; national accounts; industry; energy; construction; transportation and communications; external trade; public finance and banking; prices; education; health; housing; and social security.

II. In this chapter, data on 1999 and earlier years refer to data of the former Macao region.

III. Data in this chapter are provided by the Statistics and Census Service of the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region, which are tabulated and edited by the International Statistical Information Centre of the National Bureau of Statistics.

IV. According to the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, Macao Special Administrative Region maintains its independent statistical system that is responsible to comply and disseminate statistical information on the different aspect of the Special Administrative Region. As Macao and the mainland of China adopt different statistical concepts, definitions and terminology, users are advised to read the Explanatory Notes at the end of this chapter when making comparison between the mainland of China and the Macao Special Administrative Region.

V. Macao is a separate customs territory; therefore, import and export trade between Macao and the mainland of China also requires customs declaration. In terms of trade statistics, Macao’s external merchandise trade data also include trade transaction between Macao and the mainland.

VI. The Macao Pataca (MOP) is the legal tender in the Macao Special Administrative Region, all other currencies (including Renminbi) are considered as foreign currencies in statistics on foreign exchange and related data.

VII. Detailed information and respective technique are available in the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, Yearbook of Statistics and other thematic publications published by the Statistics and Census Service of the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region.

VIII. Notations used in this chapter:

“-” Indicates absolute value equals zero; (blank) indicates no figure provided or not available; “r” indicates rectified data; “p” indicates provisional data; “o” indicates less than half of the unit employed; “*” or “①”indicates footnote.