Commodities Prices a Risk, Bank Says

Despite offering an uplifting outlook for Cambodia’s economy this year, economists at the World Bank said yesterday that it could still succumb to volatile commodities prices, particularly food and gas. Speaking to journalists after the release the bank’s East Asia and Pacific Economic Update for 2012, senior country economist Enrique Aldaz-Carroll said that the price of petrol in Cambodia relies too heavily on international market and could impact inflation. “The government, starting from early 2011, discontinued the taxing of [European Union] subsidies of petroleum imports and also they reduced the tariff rate, so now the price of petroleum in the market is just a reflection of the price on the international market,” he said. …