AFP
PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA'S foreign currency reserves have topped the US$2.5 billion (S$3.5 billion) mark despite forecasts that the country's economy will contract this year, the premier said on Thursday.
Hun Sen revealed in a speech that the country has increased its international reserves by 21.48 per cent since the end of last year, when they stood at just over $2 billion.
'Despite receiving the impact of the global economic and financial crisis, we can ensure international reserves will continue increasing remarkably,' he said.
'As of the end of August 2009, calculated international reserves had reached $2,522 million,' he added, in the speech marking 30 years since Cambodia rebuilt its national bank that was destroyed under the Khmer Rouge.
After several years of double-digit growth fuelled mainly by tourism and garment exports, Cambodia was buffeted by 2008's global economic downturn.
Last month the International Monetary Fund predicted Cambodia's economy will contract 2.75 per cent this year amid the slowdown, but praised the national bank for its supervision of commercial banks hit by non-performing loans.
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