PHNOM PENH, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Sunday lowered the kingdom's economic growth forecast to 2.5 percent in 2021 from its earlier projection of 4.1 percent, due to the COVID-19.

The economy in the Southeast Asian nation is mainly driven by garment and footwear exports, tourism, real estate and construction, and agriculture.

"Due to disruption caused by the COVID-19, our growth is projected at only 2.5 percent, down from the earlier prediction of 4.1 percent," the prime minister said here during the launch of a vaccination drive for the adolescent group aged from 12 to 17.

Hun Sen said this year's growth relied on agriculture as other sectors, particularly tourism, are still hit hard by the pandemic.

He said since the start of the COVID-19 in January last year until now, the government had released a stimulus package of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars to minimize socio-economic impacts caused by the pandemic.

Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said last month that the kingdom exported 4.45 million tons of agricultural products in the first half of this year, up 84 percent year-on-year.

Exported to 62 countries and regions, the agricultural products were worth more than 2.57 billion U.S. dollars during the January-June period this year, he said.

Cambodia has been enduring the third wave of COVID-19 community transmission since Feb. 20. The kingdom reported 671 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the national total caseload to 77,914, the health ministry said, adding that 23 new fatalities were reported, taking the overall death toll to 1,420.