2 June 2019
Nepal’s trade deficit has reached to Rs. 1,099 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year.
Owing to an increase in the import of capital goods with the pace of development works in the country, Nepal’s trade deficit has increased significantly by 20.06 per cent during the review period as compared to same period last year.
According to the Foreign Trade Statistic of Department of Customs, the country has imported goods worth Rs. 1,178.13 billion while export has been limited to Rs.78.53 billion during the review period.
The imports rose by 19.91 per cent against the export that rose by 17.84 per cent during the review period.
Although export rose in line with the rise in the import, the low production of exportable goods attributed to increase of the trade deficit.
In the review period, the country’s foreign trade increased by 19.78 per cent to Rs. 1,256.67 billion.
The contributions of the export and import to the total trade stood at around 6.3 per cent and 93.8 per cent, respectively.
Nepal faced highest amount of trade deficit with India following China during the review period as India is the highest trading partner of Nepal.
The trade deficit of the country with India stood at Rs. 711.08 billion while it stood at Rs. 167.43 billion with China and Rs. 29.66 billion with United Arab Emirates.
During the review period, Nepal imported goods from India worth around Rs. 761.41 billion while exported goods worth only Rs. 50.33 billion.
Likewise, Nepal exported goods to China worth Rs. 1.79 billion and imported from China worth around Rs. 169.22 billion.
The country imported goods from UAE worth about Rs. 29.83 billion while exported goods worth Rs. 174 million.
Nepal’s trade deficit with France stood at Rs. 17.73 billion, Indonesia Rs. 14.68 billion, Thailand Rs. 11.89 billion, Canada Rs. 10.34 billion, Malaysia Rs. 10.69 billion, Switzerland Rs. 9.93 billion and Argentina Rs. 9.14 billion.
The country faced a trade deficit with USA of Rs. 1.07 billion during the review period. Nepal exported goods to USA worth about of Rs. 8.84 billion while imported goods worth Rs. 9.92 billion.
However, Nepal’s trade with Central African Republic, Monaco and New Caledonia was on surplus. Trade surplus with Central African Republic stood at Rs. 275 million, New Caledonia of Rs. 18 million during the review period.
