Economic Growth Projected at 4.8 Percent in 2022: Deputy PM

Deputy prime minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmonirath predicts stronger economic growth next year. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Cambodia’s economic growth is projected to see robust growth next year because of economic recovery resulting from the government’s Covid-19 vaccination programmme.

The growth projection was made by Aun Pornmoniroth, deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance during a parliamentary workshop on building a macroeconomic policy framework and the allocation of public finances in the draft law on the national budget 2022 held yesterday.

The event was chaired by Khuon Sudary, second vice-president of the National Assembly.

Pornmoniroth recalled that Cambodia’s economic growth was projected previously at 4 percent in 2021 after contracting 3.1 percent in 2020. But because of the Feb 20 incident and the Delta new variant, t growth was lowered to 2.4 percent.

“Cambodia will have economic growth of 4.8 percent in 2022 as [the Kingdom] is able to recover economically soon due to the campaign to vaccinate people, build immunisation in the community and push for a normalised society,” he said.

Other predictions on economic growth have been more optimistic.

In the fight against Covid-19, the government has released about $719 million of intervention spending to protect people’s lives, stabilise their livelihoods and support business activities, he said. But because of the events of Feb 20, when Coronavirus-infected people bribed their way out of a quarantine hotel, the budget for Covid-19 intervention doubled to $1.454 billion.

“Having an emergency budget is not a coincidence. This comes from the prudent thinking of the royal government’s long-term vision,” Pornmoniroth said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Aug 1 lowered the Kingdom’s economic growth forecast to 2.5 percent in 2021 from its earlier projection of 4 percent because of the damage caused by Covid-19.

“Due to disruption caused by Covid-19, our economic growth is projected at only 2.5 percent, down from the earlier prediction of 4.1 percent,” Mr Hun Sen said.

The economy in the Kingdom is mainly driven by garment and footwear exports, tourism, real estate, construction and agriculture.

But the prime minister said this year’s growth relied on agriculture because other sectors, particularly tourism, are still hit hard by the pandemic.

In the meeting, the National Assembly’s officials stressed that socio-economic recovery depends entirely on the speed of vaccination and the control of the spread of the disease.

“What is special and remarkable is that in the circumstances of the Covid-19 crisis, the royal government is determined to save the lives and wellbeing of the people affected by the disease… without receiving treatment and being taken care. The government is committed to vaccinating at least 10 million people this year,” Sudary said.

The parliamentary workshop on building a macroeconomic policy framework and public finance was organised to gather input from a variety of sources to provide opinions and recommendations to the government through the Ministry of Economy and Finance to enable the preparation of the draft law on finance so each year can be managed efficiently, enhancing people’s lives and the development of the nation.

Khmer Times