Cambodia's economy to grow by 6.2 pct in 2012: Local watchdog
Cambodia's economy to grow by 6.2 pct in 2012: Local watchdog
Cambodia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow at a modest 6.2 percent this year, the Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC) said Wednesday.
The country's growth is relying on garment export, tourism, agriculture and construction.
The Institute predicted that the industry sector is projected to grow at just 8.8 percent, while the growth rates of the agriculture and service sectors have been revised upward to 4.6 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.
"Export growth of Cambodian garment products and milled rice has already markedly slowed down as of April 2012 and is likely to continue decelerating throughout the year," said Khin Pisey, an EIC researcher and the lead author of the report.
Weakening demand in Europe and the United States has hampered Cambodian exports of textile and garment products.
In the agriculture sector, the growth estimate has been slightly revised upward as prices of non-paddy crops turned out to be less bearish than the expectation earlier this year, especially the price of cassava and soybeans.
The report said that foreign trade activities this year are expected to grow at much lower rates than last year, as Cambodia's two major markets -- the United States and Europe -- are mired in slow economic recovery and sovereign debt crisis, which are slowing down growth in consumption.
The Ministry of Finance on Tuesday revised the country's GDP growth to 6.9 percent this year, 0.1 percentage point lower than the April's forecast of 7 percent.
Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said that the lower forecast was due to slow increase in garment export in April and May this year.
He said the garment export in the first quarter (January-March period) of this year increased by 22.8 percent, but in the first five months of the year, the growth was only 12.8 percent due to the declining purchase order from the United States.
xinhua
