Cambodia has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 vaccination among economies in the East Asia and Pacific region, according to Britain’s Global Change Data Lab.
The group’s web publication Our World in Data shows that 29 percent of all Cambodians were fully vaccinated as of Sunday — the same share as Japan and second only to Singapore (58 percent) in the absence of Chinese data.
Among other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) economies, Malaysia ranked third at 21 percent followed by Australia and New Zealand at 15 percent — the same as the world average — and South Korea at 14 percent.
Apart from Laos, where 11 percent of the population has first and second shots, the rates of vaccination in other RCEP countries were all below 10 percent.
In an update to its World Economic Outlook last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said global economic prospects were diverging in line with access to vaccines.
“Vaccine access is the principal fault line along which the global recovery splits into two blocs: those that can look forward to further normalisation of activity later this year (almost all advanced economies) and those that will still contend with prospects of resurgent infections and rising COVID death tolls,” the update said.
The IMF downgraded its growth forecast for emerging and developing economies in Asia to 7.5 percent this year, down 1.1 percentage points from its outlook in April.
The lower forecast for the region mainly reflects expectations for a slow recovery in confidence in India after a severe COVID-19 outbreak between March and May.
“Similar dynamics are at work in the ASEAN-5 group (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), where recent infection waves are causing a drag on activity,” the IMF said.
The five main Southeast Asian economies are now projected to grow by a combined 4.3 percent this year, down 0.6 of a percentage point from the earlier forecast.
China’s projection was revised down 0.3 of a percentage point to 8.1 percent to reflect a “scaling back of public investment and overall fiscal support.”
The IMF forecast Japan’s growth at 2.8 percent, down half a percentage point from the April projection amid rising COVID cases.
But “Japan is anticipated to see a stronger rebound in the second half of 2021, as vaccination proceeds and the economy fully reopens,” the IMF said.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press