Cambodia is enjoying a public health success four months after detecting its first coronavirus case, but the pandemic’s impact is setting the stage for an economic disaster in the nation of 16 million.
The country, with one of Southeast Asia’s poorest health systems, has avoided the type of fast-spreading outbreak that has overwhelmed several developed nations.
At the same time, the World Bank has warned the country faces the “greatest threat” to its development in 30 years, predicting the pandemic’s economic fallout could push GDP into a contraction of between 1% and 2.9% this year in what would be Cambodia’s first bout with negative growth since 1994.
