PHNOM PENH: After approving the draft law on finance for the management of 2022, the Council of Ministers has now approved the draft law on the payment of the general state budget for 2022. This approval was made at Friday’s Plenary Meeting of the Council of Ministers, chaired at the Peace Palace by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

According to the draft law, the Cambodian economy is projected to have contracted by -3.1% due to the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, which has significantly affected key growth sectors such as hotels and restaurants, garment factories, the wholesale and retail sector, construction and real estate, as well as transportation. The agricultural sector, on the other hand, has achieved positive growth but remained low at around 0.5%, while the non-garment manufacturing sub-sector maintained good growth too.

Based on this, the current budget for 2022 has reached 109,062 billion riel, which means the individual GDP has dropped to $1,653, down from $1,700. Meanwhile, the average inflation rate will increase to 2.9%, while the exchange rate will average out at 4,080 riel per US dollar.

^{PHOTO: Phal Sophup}