KATHMANDU: Nepal’s import has grown for the first time in more than one and a half years with the economic activities in the country having largely normalized along with decreasing COVID-19 cases, Nepal’s central bank data showed.
According to the Nepal Rastra Bank data released on Tuesday, Nepal’s import grew by 0.01 percent to 6.91 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2020-21 that began in mid-July 2020. It is for the first time in 19 months that Nepal saw growth in import.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nepali government had been taking import control measures such as discouraging loans to buy imported vehicles amid ballooning trade deficit, leading to the decline in import in the early months of fiscal year 2019-20.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and reduced economic activities at home and abroad affected the Himalayan country’s import of goods at the second half of the fiscal year 2019-20.
“The growth in import for the first time after a long period suggests that economic activities in the country have largely normalized,” Shishir Ghimire, information officer at the Department of Customs said on Tuesday. “Currently, there has been a smooth flow of goods through almost all customs points of the country.”
According to him, even though the movement of goods through Nepal-China border points has not yet returned to normal due to partial restrictions imposed amid COVID-19 fears, frequent landslides and other disruptions in the last one year, all other customs points are running smoothly. “Goods from China are coming to Nepal through the sea route normally,” Ghimire said.
The lockdown imposed by the Nepali government for nearly four months starting from March last year and the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases after the lifting of the lockdown in July the same year resulted in the contraction of the Nepali economy for two consecutive quarters – final quarter of last fiscal year 2019-20 and first quarter of current fiscal year 2020-21, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the central statistics body of the Nepali government.
The Nepali economy is estimated to have contracted by 15.4 percent in the last quarter of fiscal 2019-20 and 4.6 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2020-21, according to the CBS.
But central bank data showed that import of industrial goods and capital goods have grown substantially, suggesting the recovery of the economic activities.
“Based on the ongoing import scenario, I feel economic activities in the country have largely normalized,” said Ghimire.
Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population said on Tuesday that 114 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. (Xinhua)
