Construction Driving Economic Growth

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 912 Views

The construction sector is now the most dynamic driver of GDP growth according to The East Asia Pacific Economic Update that was published by the World Bank at the start of October.

“Construction and real estate represented 2 percent growth out of the 7.1 growth in GDP last year. This is the largest contributor. It is booming and quite hot,” according to Sodeth Ly, country economist at the World Bank in Cambodia.

In 2013, construction and real estate only accounted for 1.3 percent of GDP growth, but grew faster than garment production for the first time last year. Given the figures for construction sector imports, this trend is likely to continue, despite predictions by the World Bank that Cambodia’s growth will slow to 6.9 percent in 2015.

For the first half of this year, 1.2 million metric tons of construction materials were imported, with steel increasing by 32 percent, cement by 8 percent and general materials by 38 percent.