Bank Forecasts Drop in GDP Growth to 6.5%

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday revised its prediction for economic growth in Cambodia down to 6.5 percent as it warned that weakening demand from markets in the US and Europe could affect exports leaving the country. The ADB’s biannual outlook report for 2012 also said that economic growth in Cambodia could be stifled by a shortage of skills in the labor force and underlined the growing inequality that exists between people in urban and rural areas. “The subdued outlook for the EU and US, Cambodia’s main export markets, suggests that GDP growth will edge down,” the report said, adding that eurozone economies were predicted to shrink by 0.5 percent across the bloc this year. “Demand for garment and footwear imports in the EU and US is expected to slow this year,” the report added. The outlook for economic growth this year was revised down from 6.8 percent in April last year. Economic growth is estimated to reach 7 percent in 2013. …