Illustrative image (Photo: Khmer Times)
PhnomPenh (VNA) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecastedthat Cambodia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will experience a negative growth of 1.7percent in 2020 due to social distancing measures to contain theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Ifthe prediction comes true, the Cambodian economy will grow negatively for thefirst time since IMF began assessing the economy in 1988.
Ina more optimistic scenario, IMF believes that if COVID-19 vaccine is producedand used in the second half of this year, the global and Cambodian economieswill increase 5.8 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.
Thereport “Great Lockdown” by IMF released on April 16 indicated that theeconomic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the worst since the2008-2009 global financial crisis – the time Cambodia’seconomic growth was 0.1 percent.
Since1998, Cambodia has experienced quite high economic growths with a yearly averagegrowth of 8 percent. The poverty rate plummeted to 10 percent in 2019 from 53percent in 2004. Other areas such as education and health have also improvedsignificantly.
Toease the economic shock caused by the pandemic, the Cambodian government has announced a 2-billion-USD budget package tosupport pillar sectors of the national economy, including agriculture and banking, and help workers in garment and tourism who lost jobs./.
