Kathmandu, May 19

The outflow of money from the country surpassed inflows by Rs 64.68 billion as the value of imports exceeded Rs one trillion mark, which is over 31 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, in the first nine months of fiscal 2018-19, according to Nepal Rastra Bank’s statistics.

The macroeconomic report of the first nine months of the current fiscal published by the central bank shows that the balance of payments remained at a deficit of Rs 64.68 billion in the review period compared to a deficit of Rs 14.6 billion in the same period of the previous year.

In terms of US dollar, the overall BoP recorded a deficit of $568.3 million in the review period compared to a deficit of $144.1 million in the same period of the previous year.

As per the NRB report, the country’s import bill increased by 21.3 per cent to Rs 1,061.63 billion against increment in exports by 16.9 per cent in the first nine months of 2018-19, thereby creating pressure on the overall BoP situation. As a result, the country’s total trade deficit has widened by 21.6 per cent in the review period to Rs 991.81 billion, as per the central bank report.

Similarly, the current account also registered a deficit of Rs 204.43 billion in the review period against a deficit of Rs 172.67 billion in the same period of the previous year.

As per the NRB report, workers’ remittance increased by 20.9 per cent to Rs 653.19 billion in the review period compared to an increase of 5.6 per cent in the same period of the previous year. In US dollar terms, remittances increased 9.5 per cent in the review period compared to 9.6 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, consumer price inflation stood at 4.4 per cent in mid-April 2019 compared to 5.3 per cent a year ago. Food and beverage inflation stood at 2.8 per cent in mid-April 2019 compared to 4.7 per cent a year ago, as per the report. The non-food and service inflation stood at 5.7 per cent in mid-April 2019 compared to 5.8 per cent a year ago.