Macao's economy is tipped to grow more than 5 percent this year, Francis Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance, said Monday afternoon.
The growth rate will be a new high since Macao returned to the motherland at the end of 1999, Tam said in his economic policy address for 2003 at the Legislative Assembly.
But he warned that it needs more time for an all-round economic recovery occurring in the SAR.
The SAR's gross domestic product reversed continuous negative increases reported before the hand-over year, growing 4.6 percent in 2000 and 2.1 percent in 2001.
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2002)
