World Bank, IMF forecast Cambodia’s 2021economic growth at 2.2%, approx. 4-5% for 2022

• 29 September 2021
• Local News
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The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently lowered Cambodia’s economic growth forecast in 2021 to only 2.2% but predicted that the rate will rebound to 4.5 to 5% in 2022.

According to a World Bank report, the 2.2% is the drop from a 4% forecast in April 2021 due to the fact that the country is suffering from a new wave of Delta variant.

The lower growth is also due to the disruption of tourism, the slowdown in the construction and real estate sector, and Cambodia’s uncertainty over the outlook for managing social and economic impacts.

However, the agriculture, export, and investment sector remain robust, which will help bring the 2022 forecast growth rate to 4.5%.

To address the economic crisis, the World Bank recommended Cambodia to take concrete steps to strengthen external competition as well as boost production and exports, especially to take advantage of Cambodia’s new investment law and free trade agreement between Cambodia and China.

The World Bank’s 2021 economic growth projection of Cambodia is similar to the International Monetary Fund (IMF’s forecast, with only a slight difference for 2022 as IMF is projecting 5% rather than 4.5%.

Last week, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also downgraded Cambodia’s 2021 economic from 4% to 1.9%. For 2022, the ADB forecasts that Cambodia’s economic growth will reach 5.5%. (Read more)

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