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Cambodian economy to see 4.5 pct growth in 2004: IMF

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24-Aug-2005
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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- As Cambodia's non-agricultural growth is expected to rebound strongly due to a recovery in tourism, its overall GDP would most likely grow by four to four and half percent in 2004 and then dramatically slow down to 1.9 percent in 2005, a report of International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.

    The report said Cambodia's economic performance in the last fewyears was generally favorable, especially on the macroeconomic front.

    However, the IMF report also pointed out that though Cambodia has attracted large aid inflows, which averaged 12 percent of GDP,only a limited amount was spent on agricultural development.

    With 80 percent of the poor live in the rural areas, poverty remains pervasive as recent growth was narrowly based, and economic opportunities for the poor have remained limited, it said.     

    The report said the immediate concern is to find ways to dampenthe expected slowdown in GDP growth in 2005. The elimination of the quota system in January 2005 will expose Cambodian exporters to direct competition from neighboring countries.

    Besides tourism, the garment industry is one of main earners ofthe nation's foreign revenue which employed more than 230,000 workers and earned more than 1.5 billion US dollars in 2003.

    IMF also urged Cambodia to strengthen the reform in the agricultural sector to "reduce income disparity between the urban and the rural sectors".

    Cambodia now has still 35 percent people living under the poverty line among its 13 million population. Enditem