Six month macro-economic data reflects overall improvement; look at the major highlights of the report

The central bank published annual macro-economic data for the year of 2019/20. The report covers major details on inflation, trade, services, remittance, BOP position, foreign exchange reserves, fiscal deficit, surplus, expenditure, revenue, money supply, deposit, credit liquidity, interest rates and capital market.

Some of the major highlights from the reports are:

Inflation: Inflation remained at 6.82% mid-January 2020 compared to 4.58% of the same period last year.

Import and export: Imports of the nation decreased 4% amounting to Rs.694.69 billion, which had increased by 30.5% in the same period last year. On the other hand, the export has increased by 26.1% amounting to Rs.57.28 billion. As a result, trade deficit narrowed to 6.1% worth Rs.637.41 billion in six months of 2019/20.

Services: Net service income remained at deficit of Rs.4.46 billion compared to the deficit of Rs.9.45 billion in the same period, last year. Travel payments worth Rs.37.59 billion has gone out of Nepal, out of which Rs.17.95 billion is for education.

Remittance: Remittance increased 0.9% amounting to Rs.447.26 billion. Remittance had increased by 30.2% in the same period of the previous year.

Current account: The current account posted a deficit of Rs.84.71 billion in the review period against the deficit of Rs.152.16 billion in the same period of the previous year.

BOP position: The overall BOP remained at a surplus of Rs.26.65 billion in the review period compared to a deficit of Rs.63.86 billion in the same period of the previous year.

FDI inflows: Nepal received FDI worth of Rs.12.20 billion which was Rs.4.36 billion last year in the same period.

Exchange rate: Nepalese currency vis-à-vis US dollar depreciated 3.3% against 2.8% depreciation of last year in mid-January.

Government expenditure: The government expenditure stood at Rs.378.17 billion in the six months of 2019/20, which was Rs.339.29 billion in the corresponding period of last year. Since all transactions are done via bank, these figures are based on the banking transactions.

Government revenue: It increased to Rs.483.72 billion which was Rs.414.27 billion in the corresponding period previous year.

Fiscal Deficit/Surplus: In the six months of 2019/20, the fiscal position remained at a surplus of Rs.119.31 billion compared to a surplus of Rs.82.06 billion.

Banking:

-Deposit collection: Deposits at BFIs increased by 6.2 percent in the review period compared to an increase of 7.7 percent in the corresponding period previous year.

-Credit distribution: Credit to the private sector from BFIs increased 8.6 percent in the review period compared to a growth of 12.7 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

-Liquidity management: In the review period, NRB mopped up Rs.58 billion liquidity through open market operations. Rs.100.35 billion liquidity was mopped up in the corresponding period of previous year.

-Interbank transactions: The inter-bank transactions among commercial banks stood at Rs.926.53 billion and among other financial institutions (excluding transactions among commercial banks) amounted to Rs.91.42 billion.

-Interest rates: The weighted average 91-day Treasury bills rate increased to 9.45 percent in the review period from 0.86 percent a year ago. The weighted average inter-bank transaction rate among commercial banks, which was 2.84 percent a year ago, decreased to 1.76 percent in the review period.