Cambodia’s Central Bank decides to keep reserve rate at 12 pct despite rising inflation

  PHNOM PENH, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) decided not to raise the reserve requirement rate for commercial banks from the current 12 percent to 16 percent although the country’s inflation has gradually increased, Nguon Sokha, NBC’s director general, said on Thursday.
   “After the meeting of the NBC’s monetary board chaired by the Governor Chea Chanto, the board decided to keep the reserve rate at the existing rate--12 percent,” she told Xinhua. “The decision is to help the country to achieve its high growth of economy at around 7 to 8 percent this year.”
   Sokha said the board agreed that the inflation has gradually increased since earlier this year, but it’s still controllable.
   “The country’s inflation this year is forecast around 6.5 percent, it’s still manageable and it is in line with the forecast of the International Monetary Fund,” she said.
   Earlier this month, the NBC announced that it would consider increasing the reserve rate to 16 percent to curb inflationary pressures and to reduce liquidity in the economy.
   The reserve requirement is a proportion of customer deposits that must be held by a bank rather than being lent to borrowers; it is usually held in a bank's account with the central bank.