Jan-July international trade falls 16%, deficit narrows

Based on the data, Cambodia’s exports to international markets amounted to $13.5 billion, falling by 1.8 per cent from $13.8 billion in 2022, while imports dropped 25.6 per cent to $14.2 billion from $19.1 billion a year ago.

However, Cambodia’s trade deficit contracted significantly to $650.2 million in that time from $5.3 billion last year.

For the month of July this year, international trade came in at $4.0 billion, decreasing by 28.2 per cent from $5.6 billion in July 2022.

Of that, Cambodia’s exports decreased 13.8 per cent to $2.1 billion while imports reduced by 38.9 per cent to $1.9 billion.

Lim Heng, Cambodia Chamber of Commerce vice-president, told the Post on August 10 that the main reason for the decline in international trade volume was due to declining orders from international markets, although manufacturing and processing capacity maintained its strength.

While international trade decline is happening everywhere in the world due to low demand, what is interesting is that Cambodia’s trade deficit is narrowing.

“Cambodia import-export trade balance is close to equal. Every country always wants this, especially developing countries,” he said.

Explaining the sharp drop in imports, Lim Heng said this was due to the fact that Cambodia does not receive “as many orders from international markets as before”.

This translates to lower imports of raw material or ingredients for processing, resulting in reduced exports to the international market.

Hong Vanak, an economics researcher at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the war between Russia and Ukraine has reduced international trade in almost every country since mid-2022, but hoped that international trade would rebound once the ongoing crisis is over.

The continuous approval of new investment projects by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) is pertinent to enhancing Cambodia’s export capacity.

“I am optimistic that Cambodia’s export growth will pick up soon. But more importantly, Cambodia must not forget the efforts to develop and improve the quality of its products, especially agricultural products, because it is a potential export of Cambodia,” he said.

In 2022, the value of Cambodia’s international trade amounted to $52.4 billion, an increase of 9.2 per cent from $48.0 billion in 2021. Exports rose 16.4 per cent to $22.5 billion while imports amounted to $30 billion, an increase of 4.3 per cent, GDCE said.

phnompenh post