Garments To Keep Cambodian Economy Strong Through China Slowdown

Economy

Garments To Keep Cambodian Economy Strong Through China Slowdown

The World Bank has said it still predicted strong growth from the Cambodian economy-led by garment exports and only a moderate cooling over the next few years despite a "faster than expected" slowdown in China, Cambodia's biggest foreign investor. Marking the release of its latest economic update for the region, the Bank said the year-on-year growth of Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP) would dip from 7% in 2015 to 6.9% this year and again to 6.8% in the two years after that, largely weathering China's sharper downturn. "It's still very high growth," said Sodeth Ly, a country economist for the Bank. "So everything remains good in the mid-term outlook." Miguel Sanchez Martin, the Bank's senior country economist, said, "It is interesting to see how Cambodian exporters have been able to deal with this more difficult situation, which is appreciation in the US dollar. You can observe already some diversification into higher value-added products and also intensification of the footwear industry." Sanchez Martin said he expected garment exports to keep growing over the next few years.