Annual Development Review 2013-14

Cambodia is rapidly changing – economically, socially and politically. With an average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of about 7.7 percent in the last two decades, the country is now on the verge of graduating from low-income to middle- income status. A society that was torn apart by protracted civil conflict and external aggression in the 1970s and the 1980s is now demonstrating strong social cohesion and unity. Home to widespread poverty, miserable health conditions, and high illiteracy only about two decades ago, the country has more than halved extreme poverty, achieved robust improvements in health and is close to attaining universal primary education. The country has achieved these economic and social transformations at the same time as it has embarked on a process of internally driven democratisation and decentralisation of its polity. Recognising these development achievements, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now includes Cambodia in the select list of “dynamic” low-income countries that started their economic takeoffs in the 1990s (IMF 2013).