Cambodia is also set to suffer the worst economic impacts caused by the pandemic among the ASEAN member states.
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Cambodian people use disinfection spray at Phnom Penh International Airport. (Photo for illustration) |
The Cambodian government has already downgraded its economic growth projection for this year to 6.1 percent from 6.5 percent due to COVID-19, climate change, and geopolitics.
Center for Policy Studies (CPS) Director Chan Sophal, said the Cambodian economy will be heavily impacted by the virus, saying he expects the loss will be much higher than the ADB forecast and the situation is uncertain.
He believed that the size of the impact will account for 1 billion USD.
The ADB also predicted economic losses across the Asian region, with Thailand projected to lose 5.6 billion USD or 1.11 percent of its GDP, Singapore 1.04 billion USD (0.57 percent) and Vietnam 1.01 billion USD (0.41 percent).
Laos is also forecast to lose 39.27 million USD or 0.22 percent of its GDP, Malaysia 830 million USD (0.23 percent), Philippines 989 million USD (0.3 percent), Indonesia 2.26 billion USD (0.22 percent), and Brunei 28 million USD (0.21 percent).
The ADB said the global impact of the virus ranges between 77 billion and 347 billion USD, with the China accounting for two-thirds of the total.
It said the ongoing pandemic is affecting China and other developing Asian economies through numerous channels, including sharp declines in domestic demand, lower tourism and business travel, reduced trade and production linkages, supply disruptions, and health effects.
Most developing Asian economies are already responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in various ways. Many governments have mobilized inter-agency task forces and other coordinating mechanisms to ensure a harmonized response, the ADB said.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this month said the government had allocated 800 million to 2 billion USD to address the economic impacts of the outbreak, including 30 million USD for the Ministry of Health to fight the virus.
Source: VNA