World Bank predicts slow economic recovery for Cambodia I

(KPL) Charya, 21 years old, a beautiful Cambodian, the photo of this coffee coloured lady graced the front page of the latest Cambodian Newsletter of the World Bank, worked as a waitress in a restaurant in Phnom Penh for USD 35 per month, but just a few months ago she worked in one of the many garment factories located all over this capital city and earned USD 70.
The World Bank was trying to show that tens of thousands of workers like Charya lost their jobs when Cambodia was hit by the global economic crisis that began in 2008.
Some of them had found new jobs in the service, garment or construction sectors, but others went home to the countryside to till the soil.
Recently, the World Bank predicted that the Cambodian economy would contract by 2.2 per cent.
Garment, an important industry of Cambodia, and its export would decline by 26 per cent in the first six months of 2009 from a year earlier.
Fewer tourists came to Cambodia and there was a 25 per cent drop in construction project approvals.
One of the bright spots was agriculture and rice production increased in 2009. But, what was reassuring was that the overall economy was expected to recover in 2010 and it would grow by as much as 4 per cent.
According to the senior country economist, Stephane Guimbert, the recovery would be slow by the standards of Cambodia’s dizzy and rapid growth over a 10 year period, 1998-2008.
He predicted that the recovery would be driven by continued growth in agriculture and an expected rebound in tourism. The rebound in construction, he added, would be slow, while uncertainties in the garment sector remained high.

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