Trade imbalance at a glance

Nepal’s trade imbalance has grown exponentially owing to weak production base and increasing dependence on imports to cater to the domestic demand of products and services.

A review of the data maintained by Trade and Export Promotion Centre shows that while imports in the first 11 months of fiscal 2014-15 stood at 89.9 per cent of total trade, its ratio had risen by 1.7 percentage points to 91.6 per cent in the last fiscal. With the country’s exports unable to keep pace with the imports, the share of the latter in the total trade had gone up further to stand at 93 per cent in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

In the meantime, trade deficit has ballooned from Rs 628.43 billion in the first 11 months of fiscal 2014-15 to Rs 825.74 billion over the same period of this fiscal. Here is a quick look at trade statistics of the country: