Government officials at odds over debt levels
Government officials are at odds over how much Cambodia’s national debt amounts to. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia’s debt stands at just $2 billion, contradicting information provided by CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap last week that the number is actually $7 billion, or 63 percent of last year’s gross domestic product. Mr Yeap, chairman of the National Assembly’s commission on finance, retracted that figure yesterday, claiming he no longer knew what it was. “We don’t know how much we owe in total,” Mr Yeap said, adding that he was uncertain about whether Mr Hun Sen’s claim was accurate or not, since he did not follow the speech. He said he thought Mr Hun Sen was referring to $1.8 billion in loans that is still owed to Russia and the US from the 1970s and 1980s…
