IMF: Cambodia’s GDP growth to slow down to minus 1.5% in 2020

• 20 April 2020
• Local News
• 5340 Views

Cambodia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is projected to slow down to -1.5% as the decline in tourist arrivals and the impact on the garment industry resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

This statement was made during an interview in the Asia and Pacific Department Press Briefing with Mr Changyong Rhee, Director Asia and Pacific Department of International Monetary Fund on 15 April 2020.

“For the frontier economies, such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, their export and tourism-driven economies are likely to be significantly disrupted even though they seem to be at the beginning of the epidemic curve. As I heard in Cambodia, they already see a 60% decline in tourist arrivals, and then also the majority of their garment industry,” he said.

“We revised down their gross rate to minus 1.5 per cent. But if you see just minus 1.5 given all others are relative, you may say um, but you remember that their gross rate prior to the crisis we expect their gross rate to be 7 per cent. So, actually, it’s like more than 8.5 per cent decline compared with our pre-crisis forecast. So, the economy is hit very hard,” he added.

According to the World Bank’s Economic Update for East Asia and the Pacific in the time of COVID-19 report, Cambodia’s economic growth is predicted to decrease by 2.5%​ to the weakening of Cambodia’s main engines of growth such as tourism and construction activities in the first quarter of 2020. (Read more)