Cambodia’s economy to lose 390 million USD, worst hit in ASEAN

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast Cambodia will lose more than 390 million USD due to the economic impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak this year, the Phnom Penh Post reported.
Phnom Penh (VNA) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast Cambodia will lose morethan 390 million USD due to the economic impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak this year, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

Cambodia is also set to suffer theworst economic impacts caused by the pandemic among the ASEAN member states.

The Cambodian government has alreadydowngraded its economic growth projection for this year to 6.1 percent from 6.5percent due to COVID-19, climate change, and geopolitics.

Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) Director Chan Sophal, said the Cambodian economy will be heavily impacted bythe virus, saying he expects the loss will be much higher than the ADB forecastand the situation is uncertain.

He believed that the size of theimpact will account for 1 billion USD.

The ADB also predicted economic lossesacross the Asian region, with Thailand projected to lose 5.6 billion USD or1.11 percent of its GDP, Singapore 1.04 billion USD (0.57 percent) and Vietnam1.01 billion USD (0.41 percent).

Laos is also forecast to lose 39.27million USD or 0.22 percent of its GDP, Malaysia 830 million USD (0.23 percent),Philippines 989 million USD (0.3 percent), Indonesia 2.26 billion USD (0.22 percent),and Brunei 28 million USD (0.21 percent).

TheADB said the global impact of the virus ranges between 77 billion and 347billion USD, with the China accounting for two-thirds of the total.

It said the ongoing pandemic isaffecting China and other developing Asian economies through numerous channels,including sharp declines in domestic demand, lower tourism and business travel,reduced trade and production linkages, supply disruptions, and health effects.

Most developing Asian economies arealready responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in various ways. Many governmentshave mobilised inter-agency task forces and other coordinating mechanisms toensure a harmonised response, the ADB said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Senearlier this month said the government had allocated 800 million to 2 billion USDto address the economic impacts of the outbreak, including 30 million USD forthe Ministry of Health to fight the virus./.
VNA

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