Economists, merchants and the National Bank have wanted to de-dollarize Cambodia for years. The global pandemic might have done the trick.
The health crisis supercharged the Kingdom’s move to digital payments and cashless transactions, and the numbers are staggering: A record $76 billion in online payments was made last year over about 600 million transactions.
Payments in riel surged 44%, while dollar exchanges grew 3%. Withdrawals from ATMs, spurred by the move to online payments and the National Bank’s efforts to remove $1 and $5 bills from circulation, plunged nearly 35%.
As much as 75% of cash ATM withdrawals now occur in the local currency.
Source: Cambodia Daily Weekly Dispatch