Growth rate to remain eight percent claims NRB Governor

Kathmandu / Aug. 21: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has assured the Parliamentary Committee that eight percent economic growth rate would be achieved in the current fiscal year 2018/19.

In today’s meeting of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, NRB Governor Dr Chiranjivi Nepal said that the analysis of economic growth rate achieved in agriculture, industrial and service sector of two years have created enough bases for achieving the eight percent economic growth rate in current fiscal year.

Governor Nepal said that the NRB has been working with a monitory policy to help government achieve eight percent growth rate, by also increasing means of investment and reducing interest rate of long-term credit.

According to the NRB, deposit of banks and financial institutions has reached Rs 2,742 billion, which was 91.2 percent of the gross domestic products (GDP). Loan disbarment by banks and financial institutions towards private sector has increased by 22.5 percent and reached Rs 2,400 billion, which was 79.8 percent of GDP.

In the fiscal year, 2017/18, the total goods import increased by 25.5 percent to reach 1242 billion rupees while export was only Rs. 81.19 billion. The annual budget deficit in goods trade stands at Rs 1,161 billion. The country has been receiving on an average Rs 755 billion in remittance annually.

Similarly, the total foreign exchange deposit in the Banking sector was Rs 1,102 billion. The NRB has estimated that the total foreign exchange deposit was adequate to bear import of goods for 10.8 months and import goods and services up to 9.4 months.

Dr Nepal also shared that the paid-up capital was achieved by 25 of the 28 commercial banks, 21 of the 33 development banks and 11 of the 25 financial institutions as of the end of the last fiscal year.

Of the 16 financial institutions declared to be in crisis, two were scrapped and 9 came into operation after the resolution.

Rs 138 billion in nation’s coffer

The network of banks and the financial institutions have reached 6,651 as of the end of the last fiscal year while the commercial banks have reached in 637 of the 753 local units.

The deposit in exchequer stands at Rs 138 billion while the gold and silver deposits in the country amount to Rs 28 billion. It means a Nepali citizen saves Rs 8 in his Rs 100 earning and spends rest of the amounts in livelihood and purchase of the luxury items.

Future plan

According to the NRB Governor, NRB aims to expand the bank branches across all local units, develop special mechanism for identification, regulation and supervision of banks important from the systematic point of view and to maintain the difference in the interest in deposit and credit to 4.4 percent within three years. RSS