Decline in transfers linked to rice prices
International fund transfers to Cambodia through Acleda Bank, which claims to handle a quarter of all inbound fund transfers to the country, decreased slightly last year as a result of lower rice prices, a bank executive said on January 8. In Channy, president and group managing director of Acleda Bank, said inbound fund transfers, including remittances, declined to $1.52 billion last year, from $1.54 billion in 2015. He said the decrease – which bucked Cambodia’s steady 7 percent GDP growth – was largely due to the lower value of international trade in agricultural products, particularly rice. “Total fund transfers for international trade in the industrial sector in 2016 increased as usual, but the value of rice transactions declined noticeably,” he said.
