With soaring import and declining the remittances, Nepal’s foreign currency reserve continues to decline. According to a macroeconomic and financial report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Friday, gross foreign exchange reserves decreased by 16.2 per cent to Rs.1173.02 billion in mid-February 2022 from Rs.1399.03 billion in mid-July 2021.

In the US dollar terms, the gross foreign exchange reserves decreased by 17 per cent to 9.75 billion in mid-February 2022 from 11.75 billion in mid-July 2021.

Of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by NRB decreased by 17.7 per cent to Rs.1024.60 billion in mid-February 2022 from Rs.1244.63 billion in mid-July 2021.

The report also said that the consumer price inflation has increased significantly in the first seven months of the current fiscal year.

The y-o-y consumer price inflation stood at 5.97 per cent in the seventh month of the current fiscal year 2021/22 compared to 2.70 per cent a year ago.

Meanwhile, balance of Payments (BOP) remained at a deficit of Rs. 247.03 billion in the review period against a surplus of Rs. 97.36 billion in the same period of the previous year.

In the US dollar terms, the BoP remained at a deficit of 2.07 billion in the review period against a surplus of 817.6 million in the same period of the previous year reports The Rising Nepal.