Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Cambodia's response to inflation: stop releasing figures

BusinessWeek

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on June 23

With Asian governments from Beijing to Manila to Delhi trying to tame the inflationary beast, the Cambodians have come up with a rathern unusual solution of their own. According to the Phnom Penh Post the economic mandarins in Phnom Penh have decided to cease publication of inflation figures to avert the possibility of “disorder and turmoil.” The most recent figures for January showed the CPI was up 18%.

In neighboring Vietnam, where April figures showed inflation raging at 25%, the government is moving towards more, not less disclosure. Hanoi has finally realized that a lack of transparency only fuels speculative behavior and panic. In the face of widening concern about the central bank’s ability to prevent a currency crisis, Hanoi for the first time last week released quarterly data on the balance of payments. That has helped the black market rate drop from over 19000 dong to about 17500 to the dollar now. The official rate is about 16620.

1 comment:

frederikbalfour said...

This is Frederik Balfour, author of that blog on Cambodian inflation. I'd be grateful if you allowed your readers to see the full blog entry by clicking the following URL link: Thanks.
http://prod-blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=13223&blog_id=29