Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 11:

Foreign grants has declined by 11.7 per cent to Rs 8 billion in the six months’ period of the current fiscal year in comparison to a rise of 52.1 per cent in the same period last year.

Similarly, remittance has also declined by 12.6 per cent to Rs 23.4 billion, in comparison to a rise by 8.2 per cent last year, states Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) review. Pensions receipts has however increased by 96 per cent to Rs 4.8 billion, further states the review of central bank, “Similarly, other transfer receipts (Indian excise refund) has gone up by 23.5 per cent to Rs 994.6 million. At the same time, transfer payments has increased by 17 per cent to Rs 1.3 billion in comparison to the decline of 28.8 per cent last year.” The net foreign assets (NFA) of the banking sector (adjusting the foreign exchange valuation) has increased by 5.2 per cent to Rs 108.9 billion in comparison to the rise of 9.4 per cent last year. A normal increase in exports sector led to such an increment in NFA.

NRB mopped up Rs 10.5 billion liquidity by sale auction and injected Rs 0.5 billion liquidity by purchase auction. Central bank released Rs 2.7 billion liquidity by repo auction and mopped up Rs 4.1 billion liquidity by reverse repo auction. Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) of Rs 22.5 billion was provided to commercial banks. In the secondary market, liquidity amounting to Rs 14.6 billion was mopped up and Rs 25.3 billion was released. The national urban consumer price index projected a rise of 4.6 per cent in mid-January 2005 in comparison to an increment of five per cent last year. The growth in the price index is attributed to the upward revision in the prices of petroleum products together with the sharp rise in the price of sugar and related products. The overall price index, which was recorded at 152.5 in mid-January 2004, rose to 159.5 in mid-January 2005. The average overall price index has recorded a hike of three per cent in comparison to the rise of 5.3 per cent last year. Domestic credit of the banking sector has increased by 4.8 per cent to Rs 263.1 billion.

Total government expenditure has gone up by 6.3 per cent to Rs 34.0 billion. Of the total expenditure, recurrent expenditure stood at Rs 24.8 billion (73.1 per cent), capital expenditure at Rs 3.4 billion (10 per cent) and principal repayment Rs 4.4 billion (12.9 per cent). Freeze account has recorded Rs 1.4 billion (4.1 per cent). Total exports went up by 4.8 per cent in comparison to the rise of 10.4 per cent last year. Exports to India increased considerably by 24.1 per cent to Rs 18.0 billion in comparison to last year. However, exports to other countries has declined by 18.9 per cent. Total imports rose by 0.2 per cent to Rs 63.8 billion as against the rise of 10.2 per cent last year. Imports from India has increased by 12.6 per cent. However, imports from other countries also fell by 15.5 per cent as against the growth of 9.7 per cent last year. According to the BoP statistics for the first five months, trade deficit has gone down by 7.7 per cent because of the decline in imports and the growth in exports. Trade deficit had expanded by 14.7 per cent last year. The gross foreign exchange reserve rose by 6.8 per cent to Rs 131.1 billion in mid-January in comparison to last year.