Construction & Real Estate Sectors Growth Conditional on How Gov’t Contains COVID Outbreak: NBC

• 4 June 2021
• Local News
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Due to the 20 February COVID-19 community outbreak, the growth projection of the construction and real estate sectors remain highly conditional on how the government contains the outbreak and how global and regional economic activities will rebound in the second half of 2021, according to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).

NBC’s Financial Stability Review 2020 published on 31 May stated that the number of construction projects in 2020 grew by only 1%, with a 32.1% y-o-y drop of investment value.

The total construction area also declined by 26.9% to only 17 million sqm. In addition, the construction sector contributed -0.2% to the GDP growth in 2020, which registered negative growth.

The report also added that the slowdown in this sector is due to the decrease in the number of projects and investment, as well as the drop in imported construction materials and equipment that mainly stem from the pandemic.

However, if the government can successfully contain the outbreak, the situation is expected to improve in the second half of 2021.

With the improved global and regional economic outlooks, the market confidence in 2021 would be restored, and FDI inflows to these sectors would also progressively revive, although not to the same extent as 2019, added the report.

• Analysis
• Economy and Finance