Macau’s annual inflation reached its highest level in two years in February, driven by the Lunar New Year, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) announced today.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.16% compared to the same month last year — the highest since February 2024 — more than doubling the January figure of 0.54%, as the Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year rather than January as in 2025. This year’s Lunar New Year period ran from February 15 to 23.
Leisure, recreation, sport and culture products and services recorded the largest annual increase (+7.76%), driven by hotel room prices and tour prices (+26.6%). Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 0.92%, with restaurant meals up 1.23%. Apartment rents and mortgage costs rose 0.63% and 0.48% respectively.
Read more about this topic: Macau receives 4.17 million visitors in February, up 32.6% from 2025
Due to rising global gold prices, jewellery, goldware and watches — popular among mainland Chinese tourists — rose 40.7%. Airline ticket prices surged nearly a third (32.7%) as international oil prices also climbed sharply amid the Middle East conflict.
Macau ended 2025 with annual inflation of 0.33%, the lowest in four years. In mainland China, Macau’s largest trading partner by far, the CPI rose 1.3% in February — its largest increase since January 2023. In neighbouring Hong Kong, inflation also accelerated to 1.7% in February, up 0.6 percentage points from January.
