Wrapping up a week of delving into the four pillars of the Cambodian economy – garments, agriculture, construction and tourism – Globe editor Andrew Haffner offers reflections on the findings and process behind the series.
Small as it might be relative to the global powers it’s positioned between, the Cambodian economy is a lot to wrap one’s arms around. The nation of some 16 million people with a combined economic output of roughly $27 billion, has been set like so many others on a dizzying ride these past few months. Ian Ramage, director of Ankgor Research, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times this week as saying the level of borrowing for household expenses was previously unseen in the Kingdom.
«If this trend continues, Cambodia is at risk of reversing 20 years of development and going back to being a country with a 40% poverty rate,» Ramage warned.
According to the World Bank, the poverty rate here had fallen to 13.5% by 2014 from 53% in 2004.
That’s a triumph by any measure, but the accounting around this statistic belied the remaining precarity for those lifted from the greatest deprivation, some 4.5 million of whom remained near-poor and vulnerable to tumbling back below the line.
A rising tide may lift all ships, but with globalised downturn affecting virtually every paid sector, the entire spread has been severely limited.
This article was written by ANDREW HAFFNER
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