A visitor gets information at the Global Gaming Expo Asia in Macao, the world's biggest gambling hub.[Photo/Agencies]

MACAO - Due to the continued decline in exports of services, Macao's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank by 20.3 percent in real terms last year, with a 22.8 percent contraction in the first half, and a smaller slump of 17.7 percent in the second half, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed Thursday.

Analysis said that the economic contraction was mainly dragged down by the sluggish exports of services, which dropped 26.8 percent on yearly basis.

Exports of gaming services tumbled by 33.4 percent and exports of other tourism services decreased by 11.6 percent for the whole year. According to DSEC, Macao's domestic demand expanded at a slower pace, up modestly by 1.9 percent year-on-year, with growth in private consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation easing to 2.4 percent, 4.2 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the external demand slackened, as exports and imports of goods rose at a slower rate of 10.2 percent and 0.1 percent year-on-year respectively, whereas imports of services fell by 3.4 percent.

Macao's GDP amounted to 368.7 billion patacas ($46 billion) and per-capita GDP was 574,790 patacas ($71,984) in 2015.