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Cambodia: ‘Dollar is lovable, but use more Riel when it comes to local products’
Even as traders and business outlets accept both riel and the dollar in their day-to-day transactions, they must be encouraged to quote prices in Riel for local products, suggests Saravanan Ragupathy, Core Banking Specialist of Chip Mong Bank.
Ragupathy told Khmer Times that Cambodia is a country that has a dual-currency system, USD is commonly used as a normal exchange and as current convertibility as well. “This makes the dollar a popular choice as it is great in fashion but in reality using the dollar puts the economy with a burden of higher inflation.”
“Nobody buys for hundreds of riels or thousands of riels,” he says, adding, “Everybody buys for half a dollar or one dollar. Dollar is lovable, fashionable and the fact is one dollar is 4100 riels and riel is always inflating while the dollar is so stable.”
Talking defensively Ragupathy opined that either way, it is neither right nor wrong as it is very much a government policy.
Substantiating this, a business owner who runs Bliss Cafe in Tuol Kork, Kang Wai said, he too prefers accepting the dollar, with the reason being the values of products and services is easier reflected due to it being an internationally recognised currency compared to the riel which has a bigger face value.
“Hence the reason of the preference is very obvious as a single product or service may cost a big amount of conversion as calculation needs to be done to get the real value especially for a foreign business person like myself,” he said when contacted.
Kang runs a store that sells mostly products from Malaysia besides running a small cafe in the same premises that also sells popular Malaysian dishes such as nasi lemak.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501021539/dollar-is-lovable-but-use-more-riel-when-it-comes-to-local-products/