ENG-2016 — Page 78

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The Economy

year, up 3.6 per cent in real terms in 2016. On the other hand, machinery and equipment acquisition, a typically volatile component, fell visibly in the first half of the year amid wariness over the bleak global economic outlook. While the performance of machinery and equipment acquisition improved quickly as the more acute risks in the global economy waned, for 2016 as a whole, it still registered a decline of 4.6 per cent in real terms.

Chart 8

Main Components of Domestic Demand (year-on-year rate of change in real terms)

Per cent

20

15

10

5

0

-5

-10

Private consumption expenditure

Government

consumption expenditure

Investment expenditure in terms of gross domestic fixed capital formation

-15

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2012

2013

2014 I 2015

2016

Private consumption expenditure held firm in 2016.

Investment expenditure bounced back visibly in the second half of the year.

Labour Market

The labour market was resilient and largely stable in overall terms in 2016, with the unemployment rate averaging at a low 3.4 per cent. Both total employment and the labour force grew further at a largely similar pace, with the former reaching a new annual high of 3,787,100. The annual underemployment rate held steady at 1.4 per cent (chart 9).

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