The new 100,000 riel banknote depicting the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk is not just a pretty historical token. It will also help inject much needed cash into the economy, according to the National Bank of Cambodia.
Although take-up will occur as older banknotes of other denominations deteriorate, the introduction of the new denomination will provide additional liquidity that is demanded by Cambodia’s rapid growth, NBC director-general Nguon Sokha said. …
Kang Chandararot, president of the Cambodian Institute for Development Study, is concerned that now is not the right time for increasing the liquidity volume in Cambodia. A strengthening dollar, “seasonal riel demand”, a lack of long-term growth and inflationary pressures from the Kingdom’s neighbours are all reasons increasing liquidity was “dangerous”, he said. …
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051465591/Business/fears-over-new-bank-note.html
Cambodia will launch a new 100,000-riel banknote (in equivalent to 25 U.S. dollars) in order to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of King Norodom Sihamoni on May 14, a central bank official said Wednesday. …
A sub-decree on the issuance of the new 100,000-riel banknote was signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 30. The 100,000-riel bill is the country’s highest riel value banknote. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/08/c_132368449.htm
A new microfinance institution (MFI), ORO Financecorp Plc, is set to open in Cambodia, according to the director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). …
Cambodia already has 35 registered MFIs, according to a recent report by the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA). …
Last week, the Post reported that the loan portfolios of the 35 registered MFIs and four NGOs that are members of the CMA reached $1 billion at the end of March, a 41 per cent increase from the same time last year. …
Anne Renzenbrink and Low Wei Xiang
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765436/Business/new-mfi-to-launch-operations.html
Cambodia is considering offering sovereign bonds to raise more revenue for the national budget and move away from its dependence on overseas aid, a senior central bank official said Sunday.
National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said the Ministry of Economy and Finance was currently looking at other countries’ experiences with bond markets and was seeking outside help to issue the government’s first bonds.
By issuing sovereign bonds governments can raise money from international investors that are usually paid back with interest at the end of a fixed term. …
Ms. Sokha said there was no set date for when the bonds might be issued, but officials were working on the plan with help from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and members of the Asean+3 group, which includes China, Japan and South Korea. …
Cambodia is set to graduate this year or next to a lower middle-income country but still qualifies for overseas development assistance and concessional loans from international institutions.
“For long term financing, we cannot really survive on development assistance,” Ms. Sokha said. …
Although Cambodia does not currently issue sovereign bonds, it has been assessed recently by credit rating agencies. The most recent assessment by Moody’s gave the country a stable but high-risk “B2” rating, which means Cambodia is deemed to have “very low economic resiliency.”
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/government-mulls-issuing-sovereign-bonds-21989/
Cambodia’s largest commercial bank, Acleda, plans to install 30 automatic teller machines (ATMs) this year as the bank expects about a million new depositors during the coming year.
Acleda president and chief executive In Channy told the Post yesterday additional ATMs would be installed in Phnom Penh, in several provinces and in district-level offices in response to the increase in clients. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461728/Business/acleda-seeks-bidders-for-atm-drive.html
WHILE investments from the Middle East into Cambodia are expected to increase over the next few years, the central bank here currently has no plans to launch Islamic banking services.
Recent events like Qatar Airway’s Doha-Phnom Penh flights, which launched earlier this month, have been expected to fuel investments from the Middle East. Last September, the ministry of commerce also forecast that the region would soon be the main export market for Cambodia’s milled rice.
But a representative from Cambodia’s central bank said that Islamic banking services are not the central bank’s priority for now. Such services follow Islamic principles, and bar people from earning interest on loans or from investing in areas involving alcohol, gambling, and pork. …
Low Wei Xiang
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761645/Business/no-plans-for-islamic-banking-services-yet.html
Lending by commercial banks in Cambodia grew by more than one-third last year, according to figures provided by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday. …
Banks lent out a total of $5.89 billion in 2012, compared with $4.39 billion in 2011, NBC figures show, meaning that credit growth was massive 34.2 percent in the year. …
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/national-bank-of-cambodia-reports-lending-surge-in-2012-11368/
An increase in agricultural trading has caused the value of the US dollar to dip below 4,000 riel in the past three consecutive days, as there is now a higher demand for the Cambodian riel, money exchangers and an official from the National Bank of Cambodia said yesterday.
Nguon Sokha, director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, said that the high demand for riel is seasonal, and often comes at the same time as farmers and agricultural traders flood into the city to trade their products.
She also rejected that external impacts, such as the current weakening of the US dollar or the European sovereign debt crisis, were the cause for the dip. …
Hul Reaksmey and Dene-Hern Chen, P. 20
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Vietnam’s Military Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (MB Bank) will open its doors in Phnom Penh today, becoming the fourth Vietnamese bank to set up operations here and bringing the total number of commercial banks in Cambodia to 31.
Nguon Sokha, general director of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said that MB Bank had been granted approval to enter Cambodia’s busy banking sector in November after the bank demonstrated it had met the minimum capital requirements of $37.5 million…
Hul Reaksmey, p.29
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
The National Bank of Cambodia has issued a commercial banking licence to a Taiwanese bank, while another banking licence is pending approval for a Chinese-Cambodian joint venture, central bank Director General and Spokeswoman Ngoun Sokha said yesterday. The central bank had licensed Taiwan’s Mega International Commercial Bank to set up in the Kingdom, she said. While the sector is steadily advancing, Ngoun Sokha she was not concerned about there being too many banks, adding that additional banks are required to attract further foreign investors to the market.
(May Kunmakara, pg. 7)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011083051333/Business/two-more-banks-setting-up-shop.html
The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) decided not to raise the reserve requirement rate for commercial banks from the current 12 per cent to 16 per cent although the country’s inflation has gradually increased, Nguon Sokha, NBC’s director general, said yesterday. “After the meeting of the NBC’s monetary board chaired by the Governor Chea Chanto, the board decided to keep the reserve rate at the existing rate — 12 per cent,” she told Xinhua. “The decision is to help the country to achieve its high growth of economy at around 7 to 8 per cent this year.” Sokha said the board agreed that the inflation has gradually increased since earlier this year, but it’s still controllable. “The country’s inflation this year is forecast at around 6.5 per cent, it’s still manageable and it is in line with the forecast of the International Monetary Fund,” she said. Earlier this month, the NBC announced that it would consider increasing the reserve rate to 16 percent to curb inflationary pressures and to reduce liquidity in the economy.
(XinhuaNet)
http://indochinastock.vn/ChannelID/979/Tin-tuc/111734-cambodia-to-keep-reserve-rate-at-12-amid-rising-inflation.aspx
Cambodia has decided not to increase its reserve requirement for banks to tackle inflation, National Bank of Cambodia Director General and spokeswoman Nguon Sokha said yesterday…The Kingdom’s reserve-requirement rate for banks stands at 12 percent, meaning 12 percent of total deposits at banks must be set aside and not loaned out. Recent discussion raised the possibility of increasing the reserve requirement to 16 percent, a rate previously maintained in 2008. The NBC will, however, re-evaluate the issue if inflation increases beyond 10 percent, she said. Economists and bankers generally said they agreed with yesterday’s decision (May Kunmakara and Don Weinland, p 7).
A proposed increase in the reserve requirement would decrease lending and slow Cambodia’s economic growth, according to some bankers and experts. The National Bank of Cambodia is set to hold a meeting later this month discussing a possible raise of the reserve requirement from 12 percent at present to 16 percent, seeking to rein in inflation which NBC officials have said could hit 9 percent this year. The reserve requirement sets the amount of capital commercial banks must hold rather than lend out, and raising the rate would lower the amount banks are able to lend to customers.
(By May Kunmakara, pg. 7)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080550887/Business/proposed-changes-to-reserve-requirement-meets-controversy.html
Cambodia’s current accounts deficit has increased in recent years, but is not yet a cause for concern, according to experts. The Asian Development Bank’s July update showed Cambodia’s current accounts deficit stood at 11 percent of GDP in 2010, and statistics show the trade gap grew further in the first six months of the year. Cambodia’s imports and exports both increased by 48 percent in the first half of 2011 compared year-on-year, hitting $3.245 billion and $2.228 billion respectively, according to Ministry of Commerce figures.
(By May Kunmakara, pg. 7)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080450869/Business/current-accounts-in-control.html
Soaring prices for gasoline and goods have hurt some Cambodian consumers, causing what economists have said was a drop in the living standard of the Kingdom’s lower-income population. Gasoline traded at 5,300 riel per litre in Phnom Penh yesterday, an increase of about 12 percent so far this year, according to the Commerce Ministry’s daily statistics. Businesses have also felt the effects of inflation.
(By Ty Samphors Vicheka and Sim Virinea, pg. 8)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080350825/Business/petrol-prices-squeeze-domestic-consumers.html
Cambodia’s central bank is looking to tighten monetary policy to slow an inflation rate that could hit 8 to 9 percent this year, National Bank of Cambodia Director General and Spokeswoman Nguon Sokha said yesterday. Increases in commodity prices and petroleum has led to rising prices around the globe, and may cause further price inflation in Cambodia this year. The NBC is committed to maintaining price stability and Cambodia is not alone in the region in considering a tightened monetary policy, she said.
(By May Kunmakara, pg. 1)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080250793/Business/central-bank-mulls-its-inflation-response.html
Cambodia’s central bank is looking to tighten monetary policy to slow an inflation rate that could hit 8 to 9 percent this year, National Bank of Cambodia Director General and Spokeswoman Nguon Sokha said yesterday.
Increases in commodity prices and petroleum has led to rising prices around the globe, and may cause further price inflation in Cambodia this year. The NBC is committed to maintaining price stability and Cambodia is not alone in the region in considering a tightened monetary policy, she said.
Given Cambodia’s high degree of dollarisation – by most estimates more than 90 percent of the Kingdom’s currency – the central bank has relatively few policy instruments to use and the effectiveness of some its monetary policy options are limited.
(By May Kunmakara, p.1)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080250793/Business/central-bank-mulls-its-inflation-response.html
