Kathmandu, December 19: Remittance inflow to the country has declined by 2.3 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2019/20 compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year 2018/19.
According to the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation of the country released on Wednesday (Dec 18) by Nepal Rastra Bank, Nepal received a total of Rs 304.97 billion in remittances in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2019/20, down by Rs 7.29 billion from the same period in the last fiscal year 2018/19.
Similarly, the country’s exports saw a rise of 23.9 percent in the first quadrimester of the 2019-20 fiscal year, while imports fell by 6.9 percent. Nepal exported merchandise goods worth Rs 36.28 billion compared to an increase of 11 percent a year ago.
merchandise imports decreased to Rs 450.3 billion against an increase of 35.8 percent in the same period of the previous year.
While the exports of palm oil, cardamom, yarn (polyester and other), jute goods, medicine (ayurvedic), among others, has increased in the review period, imports of MS billet, petroleum products, gold, aircraft spare parts, cement, among others, decreased in the review period.
Due to a rise in exports and a fall in imports, Nepal’s trade deficit narrowed by 8.9 percent to Rs 414.02 billion in the four months of 2019-20. Such deficit had expanded by 37.8 percent in the same period of the previous year.
According to the NRB report, the balance of payments (BoP) remained at a surplus of Rs 27.29 billion in the review period against a deficit of Rs 57.33 billion in the same period of last fiscal.
Meanwhile, the year-on-year consumer price inflation stood at 5.76 percent in mid-November 2019 compared to 4.15 percent a year ago. Food and beverage inflation stood at 7.96 percent whereas non-food and service inflation stood at 4.07 percent in the review month.
Within the food and beverage group, prices of vegetables, fruits, meat and fish and spices sub-groups rose significantly in the review month. Likewise, within the non-food and service group, the prices of housing and utilities, clothes and footwear and education subgroups rose moderately in the review month.
