Cambodia during Financial Crisis in 2008 and 2009

The Cambodian government has taken a number of policy measures, such as loosening monetary policy and piloting subsidies in the agriculture sector. The global financial crisis has had a serious impact on the Cambodian economy, which has been heavily dependent on the world economy. The main drivers of high growth in the past decade, garments, tourism and construction, are all facing serious consequences.

The most severe impact are in the garment industry, which exported US$2.9 billion in 2008, accounting for 65% of total exports and in the past six months, 51,000 workers have been laid off, a quite big proportion of the 350,000 workers in this leading industry. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently discovered a 5% fall in the sector, concluding the less world demand.
This goes to show how disastrous having a narrow economic base can be.

While the GDP of Cambodia from 2003 to 2007 grew at above 9% a year, during the global crisis in 2008, growth slowed to 6.7 percent and then almost stopped in 2009, when the economy expanded just 0.1 percent. The quick decrease demonstrated more slowly than the need to widen the economic foundation. Now economic diversification is at the heart of the government's sustainable growth plan.


GDP of Cambodia reduced greatly in 2008 and 2009 due to financial crisis.