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 last week.

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.

“In view of the scarce supply of local human resources, the number of non-resident workers is expected to exceed 100,000 in the near future,” the monetary authority adds.

As for inflation, it is expected to hover at around 4.0 to 6.0 percent in the first half of 2012 after peaking in the last few months.