PHNOM PENH, 23 May 2012 (Cambodia Herald) – The World Bank forecast Wednesday that Cambodia's economy would grow by 6.6 percent this year.
The bank said Cambodia had one of the world's fastest growing economies over the over the past ten years with average annual growth of more than eight percent.
Stronger-than-expected growth of 6.9 percent in 2011 reflected a recovery in the flood-damaged agriculture sector, which grew 3.3 percent compared with a forecast of 1.5 percent, and robust expansion of exports, private investment, and consumption.
The bank said Cambodia had one of the world's fastest growing economies over the over the past ten years with average annual growth of more than eight percent.
Stronger-than-expected growth of 6.9 percent in 2011 reflected a recovery in the flood-damaged agriculture sector, which grew 3.3 percent compared with a forecast of 1.5 percent, and robust expansion of exports, private investment, and consumption.
The bank said the impact of economic slowdowns in America and Europe, the main destinations for garment exports, had not yet materialized.
Merchandise exports jumped 36 percent last year and appear to have benefitted from a shift of labor-intensive industries from China to lower-wage countries like Cambodia. In 2011, the number of garment factories in Cambodia rose 18 percent.
Rice exports also surged, climbing 250 percent from a year earlier to 180,000 tons in 2011. Rice production is expected to rise further on the back of increased yields of both wet and dry-season rice and an expansion of planted-areas. Exports are being supported by new mills, the bank said.
Foreign and local investment approvals shot up by 160 percent in 2011, continuing to attracting new entrants such as Japanese investors. Approvals for three Japanese projects accounted for $6.4 million in fixed assets compared with none in 2010. The top five investors last year were Britain, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea, the bank said.
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