PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), or the central bank, said on Wednesday that the country's economy grew by 7 percent last year, supported by garment export, construction, tourism and agriculture.
"Cambodia continued to achieve satisfactory economic growth at 7 percent in 2016, driven by strong growth of garment exports, construction and real estate, and tourism, while the agricultural sector has also shown slight improvement," the NBC said in its Macroeconomic and Banking Sector Development in 2016 and Outlook for 2017.
The inflation remained low at around 2.9 percent last year due to the drop in oil price, it added.
Garment and footwear exports were valued at around 6.9 billion U.S. dollars last year, representing a 4.5 percent rise year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft.
In the construction sector, the Southeast Asian country approved all real estate projects worth 8.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2016, while in tourism, the country attracted some 4.4 million foreign tourists in the first 11 months of 2016, a 4.8 percent increase over the same period in 2015.
Predicting the economic growth for 2017, the central bank said Cambodian economy would continue to move forward on its long-term growth path at around 7 percent this year, driven by garment sector, construction, tourism and agriculture.
However, the NBC highlighted some external and internal downside risks to the growth in 2017.
The external risks could be the U.S. dollar appreciation that could affect exports and tourism, the tightening of global financial liquidity that could reduce investment capital inflows, and the rising trend of trade protectionism in developed countries that would have negative implication on exports.
The internal risks could be the slower growth in real estate and construction or high credit growth to real estate and construction, and the decline in price competitiveness due to the increase in the employees' minimum wages in garment sector.
