MACAO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Macao economy expanded by 10.3 percent year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of 2017, which is attributable to the improving exports of services and investment, the special administrative region's statistic department said Monday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that service trade became key impetus to economic growth. The growth rate of total exports of services accelerated from 8.2 percent in the previous quarter to 13.4 percent in the first quarter of 2017, due to increasing visitors and higher visitors' spending.

Exports of gaming services grew by 11.3 percent and exports of other tourism services also went up by 20.9 percent. Meanwhile, imports of services rose by 6.9 percent, higher than the 1.6 percent growth in the preceding quarter.

Government consumption expenditure registered a large increase. Compared to the zero growth in the previous quarter, first quarter in 2017 rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year, of which compensation of employees and net purchases of goods and services grew by 3.7 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.

The DSEC data indicated that investment continued to improve. Gross fixed capital formation, the gauge of investment, increased by 4.6 percent year-on-year, higher than the 0.2 percent growth in the last quarter.

As regards government investment, public construction and equipment investment jumped by 73.9 percent and 132.6 percent respectively year-on-year, leading to an apparent growth of 75.3 percent in government investment.

Merchandise trade also rebounded. With the year-on-year increases in private consumption, investment and visitors' spending, exports and imports of goods rose by 9.7 percent and 5.2 percent respectively after five consecutive quarters of decline. Enditem

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