The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast Cambodia will lose more than $390 million due to the economic impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak this year, the Phnom Penh Post reported.
Cambodia is also set to suffer the worst economic impacts caused by the pandemic among the ASEAN member states.
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.
Centre 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.
The ADB also predicted economic losses across the Asian region, with Thailand projected to lose $5.6 billion or 1.11 percent of its GDP, Singapore $1.04 billion (0.57 percent) and Vietnam $1.01 billion (0.41 percent).
Laos is also forecast to lose $39.27 million or 0.22 percent of its GDP, Malaysia $830 million (0.23 percent), Philippines $989 million (0.3 percent), Indonesia $2.26 billion (0.22 percent), and Brunei $28 million (0.21 percent).
The ADB said the global impact of the virus ranges between 77 billion and $347 billion, 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 mobilised inter-agency task forces and other coordinating mechanisms to ensure a harmonised response, the ADB said.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this month said the government had allocated $800 million to $2 billion to address the economic impacts of the outbreak, including $30 million for the Ministry of Health to fight the virus.
