KATHMANDU, March 12: The country’s foreign exchange reserves have shown significant improvement, with the Balance of Payments (BoP) and the current account in surplus.
According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the foreign exchange reserves have increased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year due to factors such as the rise in remittance inflows and tourism arrivals.
The foreign currency reserves have set a historic record. At the end of the last fiscal year (mid-July), the total foreign exchange reserves stood at Rs 2041 billion. By the end of Magh (mid-February), it had increased by 16.1 percent to reach Rs 2369 billion.
According to the NRB, this reserve is sufficient to cover 17.2 months of imports of goods and 14.4 months for goods and services imports.
The BoP remained at a surplus of Rs 284.41 billion. In the seven months of the previous year, the BoP was in surplus by Rs 297.72 billion.
Similarly, the current account balance remained at a surplus of Rs 166.8 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, up from Rs 162 billion in the same period last year.