NovCambodia economy and finance
A dated, property-focused view of Cambodia’s economy: growth, prices, currencies, investment, credit, construction and the practical meaning of each indicator for an apartment buyer.
Period: 2026-Q2 · checked 22.07.2026
Indicators and their vintage
Each figure keeps two dates: the period it measures and the date it was published. A 2025 result released in mid-2026 was not available at the end of 2025, and a forecast is never shown as an observed outcome.
| Indicator | Value | Period | Released | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average CPI inflation[1] | 2.5% | 2025 | 08.06.2026 | |
| Foreign-currency deposits to broad money[2] | 84.4% | 2025 | 28.03.2026 | |
| Existing Phnom Penh condominium supply[4] | 63,334 units | 2025-H2 | 02.2026 | Knight Frank estimate, not an official register. |
| International tourist arrivals[10] | 5,569,752; -16.9% | 2025 | 02.2026 | |
| Phnom Penh households renting their dwelling[12] | 25.9% | 2023 | 10.2024 | All rented dwelling types, not condominiums only. |
How to read this dashboard
An economic number becomes useful only after four questions are answered: what exactly is measured, which period it covers, when it was released, and whether it is an observation, a preliminary estimate or a forecast. This is why the dashboard carries two dates. A 2025 figure published in June 2026 was not known at the end of 2025.
Cambodia can have more than one current estimate for the same year. The World Bank’s June 2026 update put 2025 real growth at 5.3%, while the National Bank of Cambodia’s Financial Stability Review used 5.0% [1][2]. We do not select the more convenient number or average the two. They are separate estimates that may be revised when final national accounts are released.
Property data also resist a single headline. An official price index, approved projects, completed buildings, existing stock, occupancy and advertised launch prices answer different questions. This hub places them in one framework without treating them as interchangeable.
What changed in the latest reported year
Economic growth slowed from 2024. The National Institute of Statistics reported 6.0% real growth for 2024, while current estimates for 2025 cluster around 5.0–5.3% [5][1][2]. The slowdown was uneven: the World Bank estimated 2025 growth of 9.1% in industry, 3.2% in services and 1.2% in agriculture [1]. A single GDP figure therefore does not describe every tenant group or every location in the same way.
Average inflation remained moderate at 2.5% in 2025, but year-on-year inflation accelerated to 5.6% in March and 5.8% in April 2026 [1]. That does not imply an equivalent rent increase. The consumer price index tracks a household basket, while rent also depends on local supply, building quality and household purchasing power.
The World Bank estimated foreign direct investment at US$5.1 billion in 2025, equal to 10.1% of GDP [1]. At the same time, the National Bank’s residential property price index was down 3.8% year on year nationwide and 4.3% in Phnom Penh in December 2025 [2]. These figures are not contradictory: FDI spans several sectors and is not the same as demand for completed apartments.
What the economy earns from
Cambodia’s economy combines export manufacturing, construction, tourism, agriculture and domestic services. Garments and footwear remain major employers and foreign-exchange earners, while manufacturing is gradually diversifying into electronics, automotive components and other non-resource industries. For property demand, the critical questions are where jobs are created, what they pay and how durable they are.
Agriculture accounts for roughly one sixth of output but employs about one third of the workforce—around three million people in the World Bank’s estimate [1]. The gap between employment and value added helps explain why national growth does not immediately translate into mass urban demand for mid- and upper-tier apartments.
Tourism matters for hotels, short stays, retail and selected resort markets, but it should not be used as a universal explanation for Phnom Penh demand. The capital’s long-stay market is more closely tied to employment, education, diplomatic activity, corporate offices and domestic migration.
Two currencies, four money questions
The riel is Cambodia’s national currency, while the US dollar is widely used as a unit of account and a means of payment. Foreign-currency deposits represented 84.4% of broad money and 90.7% of total deposits in 2025, according to the National Bank [2]. Deep dollarisation, however, does not make exchange-rate mechanics irrelevant.
A buyer should separate four questions: the currency in which the price is advertised; the currency of the obligation in the SPA; the account and payment rail used to send funds; and the currency and exchange rate at which the bank or developer credits the payment. Bank charges, correspondent fees and conversion can alter the amount received even when the headline price is in dollars.
The same logic continues after completion. Rent may be denominated in dollars while utilities, staff, minor repairs and some taxes are paid in riel. The operating result therefore depends not only on the exchange rate but on who bears conversion costs and which rate is applied.
Why GDP and apartment markets can move differently
GDP measures output across the entire economy; an apartment price is formed in a narrow local market. Export growth can lift national output while barely affecting a particular building if the jobs are created elsewhere or wages do not support its rent level. Conversely, a district can be supported by a school, office cluster or infrastructure improvement during a weak national period.
Supply arrives with a lag. A building completed in 2025 may have been financed and sold over several earlier years. A large completion figure in one half-year therefore does not prove strong current demand. Building-level analysis must identify how many comparable units are competing for the same tenant or buyer now, not merely the total city stock.
Knight Frank estimated Phnom Penh’s existing condominium stock at 63,334 units in the second half of 2025, while the National Bank’s official price index was down 4.3% year on year in the capital in December [4][2]. The series cannot be divided into each other or converted into a forecast: one is a consultancy stock estimate, the other a central-bank price index.
What the official property-price index actually covers
The IMF technical report on Cambodia’s RPPI methodology states that the National Bank of Cambodia’s source data are drawn from residential property loan records collected from mortgage lenders [2]. The index is therefore useful for tracking the direction and scale of change in the covered sample, but it is not a complete registry of cash purchases, intra-group transfers or developer-financed transactions.
When valuing a specific unit, record whether each comparable sale used a mortgage, cash or a developer instalment plan. Different financing structures can produce different discounts, closing periods and bundled charges; a national index does not reveal those transaction terms.
How this section is organised
The “GDP and growth” page separates real activity from the nominal size of the economy and identifies sector contributions. “Dollar and riel” distinguishes price currency, settlement currency, bank-account currency and operating expenses. “Construction and real estate in numbers” combines official approvals and price indices with consultancy estimates of stock, occupancy and launches.
Later waves will cover banking and credit, foreign direct investment, remittances, public finance and taxes, inflation, tourism, exports, population and urbanisation, and a dedicated risks page. Annual and quarterly reports will be created only for periods with enough released evidence to support a coherent review.
The glossary is not an encyclopaedia. It is a safeguard against false comparisons: real versus nominal growth, asking versus transaction prices, occupancy versus vacancy, and existing stock versus pipeline. The methodology page explains why two figures for the same year may both remain visible.
Foreign investment: a large flow, not one market
The World Bank estimated foreign direct investment at US$5.1 billion in 2025, equal to 10.1% of GDP and about 15% higher year on year [1]. The scale matters for the balance of payments, factory construction and business activity. The headline, however, does not show how much went to residential property rather than manufacturing, energy, infrastructure or services, or how much registered investment became actual expenditure.
An approved investment project, registered capital, a realised capital inflow and the purchase of a completed apartment are four different events. Public commentary often compresses them into “investment,” implying that the entire inflow supports condominium prices. NovAsia keeps them separate: official and international series describe the economy, while housing demand is tested through projects, transactions, leases and target users.
The recorded source country of capital is not necessarily the nationality of the ultimate apartment buyer. Investment can arrive through a regional holding company, bank financing or a joint venture. We therefore do not infer buyer composition from aggregate FDI tables or translate a rise in inflows into future resale liquidity.
Credit, money and the property market
By February 2026, broad money M2 was growing 9.8% year on year while private-sector credit grew 5.6% [1]. The gap shows that liquid money and bank claims on the private sector were expanding at different rates. It does not by itself establish mortgage availability or the direction of home prices.
Property analysis requires the allocation of credit: developers, contractors, homebuyers, businesses or consumption. Even a published real-estate credit share does not reveal collateral quality, project stage or a particular borrower’s capacity to service debt. A dedicated banking page in the next wave will therefore separate credit growth, problem loans, interest rates and data limitations.
Slower credit can reduce speculative demand while also restricting construction finance. Faster credit can support transactions while increasing vulnerability if borrower quality weakens. Neither direction is automatically “good” for a buyer; its meaning depends on the asset price, payment structure and counterparty resilience.
Time lags: why fresh data describe older decisions
Economic and construction series move with different lags. Annual GDP is estimated after year-end and revised later. A project approval can precede completion by years. A unit enters city stock at completion even though it may have been sold much earlier. A lease records demand only when it is signed.
These lags prevent a simple chain of “GDP rose, approvals rose, therefore prices will rise.” Every arrow requires separate evidence and can point the other way. High completions today may reflect optimism from earlier years rather than current demand, while fewer new launches can reduce future additions without removing existing stock.
Publication timing creates another lag. A March 2026 report can end its series in December 2025, and a half-year market review can appear weeks after the period closes. Every card therefore shows the observation period and release date rather than relying on a generic “latest data” label.
Turning the hub into an asset check
Start not with “Is Cambodia growing?” but with an asset hypothesis. Who is expected to buy or rent the unit, which income funds their budget, why do they need this location, and what alternatives exist? Then select only the hub indicators that test the hypothesis: employment for long-term rent, tourism for short stays, currency mechanics for instalments, and supply for resale.
Next, pair every macro number with asset evidence. Formal job growth is compared with the building’s verified tenant profile. City condominium additions are compared with identical units in the project. The average exchange rate is compared with the SPA conversion rule. This approach does not produce one label saying the “market is good”; it shows which assumptions survive scrutiny.
Finally, record what remains unknown. Without a transaction price, use a sourced range rather than a false point estimate. Without occupancy data, observe the building and request bills. When a yield is promised, break it into rent, vacancy, commission, service charge, repairs and taxes. The hub is most useful when it does not conceal the absence of an answer.
How the data are updated
Every indicator stores both the data period and the release date. When a new report appears, the previous number is not silently erased. We check whether it was revised, whether the method changed and whether the new series remains comparable. A changed estimate is labelled as such.
National official sources have priority for GDP, monetary data, exchange rates, credit and approvals. International institutions provide a comparable macro framework and dated forecast vintages. Consultancies are used for market indicators that are not published officially at the required level of detail, but every estimate remains attributed to the firm that produced it.
The last full data check for this wave was completed on 21 July 2026. That does not mean every series is current to that date: the latest released observation may refer to February, April or the second half of 2025. Missing months are not filled by interpolation.
Four money channels that need to be read together
Four money channels moved differently in 2025. FDI reached US$5.1 billion, but growth was concentrated mainly in manufacturing while inflows to construction and real estate declined [1][2]. Deposits grew faster than credit, yet gross non-performing loans remained elevated [1][2]. Workers’ remittances fell, while the fiscal year ended with a small surplus in the World Bank estimate [1][2]. The statement “more money entered the economy” cannot describe all four movements.
What the end of regulatory forbearance changes for a buyer
In July 2026, the IMF noted that pressure on bank asset quality becomes more visible as broad regulatory forbearance ends, while real-estate weakness remains a key risk because bank, household, developer and related-company balance sheets are interconnected [1]. This is a system-level assessment, not a claim that every bank or project is distressed.
For an off-plan project, translate that risk into documents: identify the legal borrower, the assets pledged as collateral, the conditions for releasing your unit from an encumbrance, who controls buyer receipts and what happens if the borrower breaches the loan terms. A bank’s name alone does not establish the buyer’s position in the creditor queue.
Their transmission into property differs. FDI creates operating businesses and jobs only after implementation; bank credit funds developers and buyers but introduces security and creditor ranking; remittances support selected household budgets; public spending creates infrastructure only after execution. The hub therefore leads readers to four checks on demand and funding rather than one country score.
The practical route begins with the question. Project-completion analysis needs banking, FDI and construction. Tenant resilience needs remittances, growth and the future population page. Full ownership cost needs dollar and riel, credit and taxes. Every live link in the section points to a published page; future topics are kept separately so the site does not create empty journeys.
How to choose a reading route
An off-plan buyer does not need to read the hub linearly. Start with Construction and Real Estate, move to Banking and Credit for funding, and use Foreign Direct Investment where the project is marketed through an overseas-capital story. Dollar and Riel plus Public Finance and Property Taxes then turn the price into a complete timeline of payments and obligations.
An owner of a completed unit may begin with demand: growth, FDI, remittances and the building’s actual tenant profile. Methodology and the glossary become useful when two sources report different numbers. This route reduces information overload: each page answers one question, and the neighbouring link explains the next causal step.
The other half of the picture: who creates demand
Capital, construction and credit explain supply, but not who will occupy completed units. The hub therefore adds living costs, export employment, tourism, households and migration. Each connects to property through a distinct mechanism rather than a generic story of “growth”.
Graduation from least developed country status: the 2029 horizon
The United Nations scheduled Cambodia to graduate from the least developed country category on 19 December 2029 after a five-year preparatory period [4]. The transition entails a gradual reduction of some trade preferences and special support measures; it is not an automatic signal that apartment prices will rise or fall.
In a UNDP simulation, the loss of trade preferences reduced aggregate exports by 2.4% relative to the baseline in 2030 and employment by 1.8%, or about 168,000 jobs [5]. This is a scenario result, not a forecast. For property analysis, apply it only where prospective tenants or buyers depend on export industries: verify the target audience’s employers, workplace geography and the project’s ability to switch to another demand segment.
Phnom Penh stands out because 25.9% of households rented their dwelling in 2023, compared with 4.9% nationally [12]. The survey includes rooms, houses and apartments of every kind. It confirms a substantial capital-city rental market without measuring condominiums alone.
Tourism matters for Siem Reap, the coast and short stays; exports matter for manufacturing clusters; migration and education matter for long-term urban demand. The section’s navigation now reflects those different routes.
A country number is not an asset number
International arrivals fell 16.9% in 2025 and another 47.8% year on year in January–May 2026 [10][11]. This is material for parts of the visitor economy, but not a ready estimate of rent in a Phnom Penh apartment. An arrival is not a night, and a night is not a long lease.
Likewise, export growth is not wage growth, FDI is not condominium investment, and population is not a buyer count. Each child page follows the chain until city-, building- or contract-level evidence becomes necessary.
The more intermediate steps remain unverified, the wider the scenario should be and the weaker the basis for promising a return.
A risk map instead of a country score
The final architecture does not assign Cambodia an arbitrary score. It maps channels: external demand, fuel, remittances, tourism, banks, construction and data quality. The reader then identifies the property’s own exposure and buffers.
National reserves and comparatively moderate public debt reduce part of systemic vulnerability, but do not pay for vacancy in a private apartment. Completed title, expense reserves, a transparent building budget and diversified tenants are separate asset-level buffers.
This approach avoids a simple sales conclusion, but allows two properties to be compared through the conditions under which each model fails.
Reports only where evidence is sufficient
The package includes a 2025 annual review and a Q1 2026 review. Full-year NBC and tourism reports and an updated World Bank estimate are available for 2025. The June World Bank update provides a sufficiently broad Q1 set covering trade, tourism, prices, credit and reserves.
Annual pages for 2021–2024 and a continuous quarterly series were not generated automatically. Each period requires its own archival review of data vintages, revisions and what was unavailable at the time.
An empty page for continuity is worse than a gap. A new report page becomes live only with its sources and internal links.
How to read the 2026 quarterly reports
Q1 and Q2 carry different statuses. Final Q1 is built from the last consolidated March monetary release, official tourism statistics and later trade cross-checks. Q2 is preliminary because June inflation is known while part of the April–June evidence set is still unpublished.
Status is displayed beside the cutoff date rather than hidden in a note. The preliminary page is not replaced by a new URL: it is revised when the complete set arrives, retains revision history and remains citable.
Reports answer what changed during the period. Definitions, long series and methodological limits remain on the evergreen topics. This structure reduces duplication and helps the reader move from an event to a decision about a specific asset.
What this means for a property buyer
Macroeconomics cannot determine whether a particular apartment is good value. It provides a framework for testing assumptions. A buyer can match the project’s target tenant with the sectors creating jobs and ask whether the proposed rent is compatible with that audience’s income. Headline GDP growth is not a substitute for this work.
Currency mechanics should be resolved before signing. The SPA should make the amount, currency, permitted payment method, completion of payment, bank charges and conversion rule clear. After purchase, dollar and riel expenses should be budgeted separately so that the contract price is not confused with the full cost of ownership.
For a completed unit, national data must be combined with building evidence: actual occupancy, the number of comparable listings, discounting, service-charge arrears, common-area budgets and management quality. An off-plan project adds construction progress, financing, sales and legal documents. No national indicator removes those checks.
A falling official index or a large supply pipeline does not imply the same discount for every unit. An index is an aggregate series; a specific price depends on floor, view, layout, condition, title, seller urgency and competition within the project. Use the macro framework as a reasonableness check, not an automatic pricing formula.
Nominal prices, real prices and the owner’s base currency
A property-price change and inflation should only be compared when their periods, geography and methodology are aligned [3]. For example, annual-average inflation should not be mechanically subtracted from a December-to-December property-price change, because the observation windows do not match.
A foreign owner needs a third layer: the currency in which personal capital is measured. Model the nominal cash flow in the SPA currency, changes in Cambodian operating costs and the result after conversion into the owner’s base currency separately. This prevents stable US-dollar rent from being mistaken for an unchanged real outcome after inflation, fees and currency conversion.
Before negotiation, date every piece of market evidence. The price list, exchange rate, remaining inventory, instalment terms and rent quote can change on different days. A decision should use one aligned snapshot or explicitly account for the timing gap; otherwise an attractive yield can combine last month’s price with this week’s rent.
What we do not know
Cambodia does not have a single open, real-time register showing transaction prices for all apartments, time on market, discounts from original asking prices and resale volumes. Consultancy reports and official indices cover different parts of the market, but not a complete transaction tape.
Systematic public data are not available for condominium occupancy by district, foreign ownership shares by building, or net yields after all expenses. A developer or manager’s marketing claim is not a substitute for a verifiable series.
Current 2025 GDP estimates differ, and 2026 forecasts vary by release date and assumptions. The final 2026 outcome is unknown and no forecast is treated as fact. Likewise, an approved project count does not reveal how many schemes will complete on schedule.
Some official publications arrive with a lag or change methodology without a long comparable history. Where comparability cannot be established, we do not connect the observations into a trend or calculate a missing rate ourselves.
Topics of this section
Each topic explains one published series: what it measures, who releases it, how often it is revised and where it stops being useful for a property decision.
Period reviews
A review says what changed in one period and keeps its own cutoff date. Only periods with enough published evidence exist here; a preliminary review is labelled as preliminary and keeps its address when it is finalised.
Frequently asked questions
Does GDP growth guarantee rising apartment prices?
No. GDP measures economy-wide output; an apartment price depends on local demand, supply, financing and the individual asset. The economy expanded in 2025 while the official residential property price index was lower year on year in December [1][2].
Which 2025 growth estimate is the correct one?
At the check date, at least two current estimates were available: 5.3% from the World Bank and 5.0% from the National Bank of Cambodia [1][2]. Until final national accounts are released, both should be shown with their dates and methods.
Why monitor the riel when property is priced in dollars?
Because the pricing currency is not always the settlement or expense currency. Conversion, bank fees, taxes, utilities and repairs can arise in different currencies.
Is 63,334 an exact count of every condominium unit?
No. It is Knight Frank’s estimate of existing Phnom Penh supply for H2 2025 [4], not an official unit-by-unit register. Comparisons must preserve the source and its market definition.
How often will the hub be updated?
Cards are updated after a material primary release, with a full reconciliation at least when new World Bank, National Bank and major market reports become available. Every page displays its last check date.
Is this investment advice?
No. The section explains published data, methods and limitations. A decision on a particular asset requires document, price, ownership-cost and personal-circumstance checks.
Can GDP per capita or median income be used as a tenant’s ready-made rent budget?
No. GDP per capita is a macroeconomic average, while the KHR 772,000 per month shown on this page is median disposable income per person in Phnom Penh, not household income or an affordable rent ceiling [6]. The 25.9% figure covers all renting households, including rooms and houses, rather than condominiums alone. A project-level estimate requires household size, the number of earners, recurring obligations and a verified tenant profile.
Apply this to a specific property
Tell us the project and the goal — we will say which of these numbers actually bears on that decision and what still has to be confirmed in the building’s own documents.
WhatsApp Contact formInformational material based on public, dated sources. It is not a public offer and not individual investment, tax or legal advice, and no forecast here is a promise of price or yield. Figures carry the period and the release date of their source and may be revised by the issuing body. A decision on a specific property requires document, price and ownership-cost checks with an independent Cambodian lawyer.