The Monetary Authority of Macau says the territory's real GDP "is expected to grow at a high-single-digit rate in the first half of 2012."

That follows an estimated growth of about 20.0 percent last year, the body said in its latest Monetary and Financial Stability Review, released a week ago.

Macau's de facto central bank predicts that the jobless rate will edge down further to around 2.3 percent this year from an estimated 2.6 percent in the previous year.