 Design of a CBDC in a Highly Dollarized Emerging Market Economy: The Case of CambodiaKenichi Ueda and Chanthol Hay Asian Economic Policy Review, 2024, vol. 19, issue 2, 272-290 Abstract: Cambodia is one of the first two countries that adopted a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in October 2020. The design of the CBDC, called the Bakong, is a bit unique. We find a few design flaws that could potentially damage the central bank and then the Cambodian economy as a whole. We show some key statistics from our own survey in 2022 to support our arguments. The Bakong is offered in two currencies, the Khmer Riel (KHR) and the US dollar (USD), as Cambodia has been highly dollarized. We discuss theoretical predictions for the CBDC based on three kinds of substitutes: paper money, bank deposits, and foreign currencies. The third one is specific to the Bakong. Unlike a typical local currency CBDC, the USD Bakong may substitute for the KHR more. Moreover, it has been announced that the retail Bakong is legally not a liability of the central bank, but from the viewpoint of the underlying technology and economics, it is a central bank liability. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:asiapr:v:19:y:2024:i:2:p:272-290 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Asian Economic Policy Review is currently edited by Takatoshi Ito, Akira Kojima, Colin McKenzie and Shujiro Urata More articles in Asian Economic Policy Review from Japan Center for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC. |
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