Due to the Covid-19 (coronabvirus) pandemic, Cambodia’s economy in 2020 is expected to register its slowest growth since 1994, contracting by between -1 percent and -2.9 per cent, according to the World Bank’s latest Economic Update for Cambodia released on Sunday (May 30).
Titled Cambodia in the Time of Covid-19, the biannual report said the pandemic is hitting Cambodia’s main drivers of economic growth — tourism, manufacturing exports, and construction — which together account for more than 70 percent of the country’s growth and almost 40 percent of paid employment.
Poverty in 2020 could increase among households involved in key sectors like tourism, construction, trade, manufacturing and the garment industry by between 3 to 11 percentage points higher than at baseline, or in the absence of Covid-19, the report said, adding that the fiscal deficit could reach its highest level in 22 years.
