Macau ranked top city in world for economic performance; Hong Kong ranks 242

Macau outperformed the rest of the world’s major cities economically last year, according to a report released today.

Cities in the developing world, especially China, dominated the top of the annual economic rankings of 300 cities worldwide by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase. One exception: Bangkok came in last, its economy wrecked by political strife in Thailand.

Macau, bristling with more than 30 casinos and the world’s biggest population of rich (and often corrupt) gamblers on its doorstep has enjoyed a tourism boom, receiving 31.5 million visitors last year – a 7.5 per cent jump over 2013.

Twenty-seven of the 50 top-performing cities were Chinese. Increasingly, strong growth occurred in the traditionally underdeveloped cities of China’s interior, rather than its booming coastal cities. Landlocked Changsha, for instance, enjoyed economic growth per person of 8.6 per cent last year and placed 15th in the overall rankings.

The coastal manufacturing powerhouse of Dongguan, next door to Hong Kong, registered per-capita economic growth of 5.2 per cent and finished 70th. Companies have begun to move inland as the cost of labour and land rises on the Chinese coast. And the government has invested heavily on infrastructure in the interior.

Hong Kong ranked 242nd with per-capita economic growth of 1.2 per cent.

Cities in wealthy, developed countries tended to lag behind. Though most of the cities surveyed around the world have recovered from the global financial crisis and subsequent recession, 65 per cent of European and 57 per cent of North American cities have not, according to the study, which ranks cities by growth in employment and in economic output per person.