Under the locomotive effect of tourism services industry and processing and export industry, real estate, construction, banking and insurance burgeoned. Thus, the four major pillars of economy gradually came into shape; they were tourism services industry, processing and export industry, real estate and construction industry, as well as banking and insurance industry.
In the ten-odd years from the 80’s to early 90’s, Macao’s economy, due to the opening-up of China, grew by leaps and bounds. The economy expanded rapidly due to very rapid growth. In 1993, with the popping of economic froth, there was an imbalance in economic structure, Macao then experienced recession for a number of years. The fourth stage is 1999 to now.