PCI reached Rs. 88,785

Kathmandu, May 28: Per capital income of Nepalese citizen is increased by 105 US dollars and reached 862 dollars – Rs. 88,785.

According to the Economic Survey of the country presented by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara at the Legislature-Parliament on Sunday, per capita income of Nepalese people was 757 dollars last year.

As the economy of the country rebounded after the shocks of the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015 and Indian blockade at the southern Nepal-India border, it created favourable environment for business and employment generation.

The economic growth rate of Nepal is estimated to reach 6.94 per cent in the current fiscal year 2016/17, from the almost zero growth in FY 2015/16.

The Central Bureau of Statistics, a national statistical organisation under the National Planning Commission (NPC), had unveiled the estimates last month that the country would witness the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of almost 7 per cent at basic price in the fiscal year 2016/17.

Survey said that favourable monsoon, energy availability and reconstruction works were the major drivers of the highest growth rate that the country is likely to achieve after about two-and-a-half decades.

Similarly, expansion of commercial agriculture, reduction in strikes and improvement in the implementation of government programmes helped to recover the economy, said Mahara.

DPM Mahara claimed that there has been significant improvement in capital expenditure. 

However, of the total capital budget, only 17 per cent is utilized by the end of the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

In the current FY, agriculture and non-agriculture sector’s contribution will be 29.37 per cent and 70.63 per cent respectively while the contribution of revenue to the GDP is projected to reach 22.3 per cent.

As per the Survey, the consumption is estimated to increase by 7.9 per cent as compared to the FY 2015/16 and will reach Rs. 22.33 trillion at current prices.

The average ratio of consumption to the GDP for the last decade is 89.86 per cent. It was 96.18 per cent last year while it estimated to come down to 89.7 per cent in the current fiscal.

The government has expected increment in capital formation expenditure.

“The capital formation expenditure was Rs. 8.31 billion in FY 2014/15 which decreased by 8.9 per cent in the last fiscal and went down to Rs. 7.57 billion. It will be increased by 45.8 per cent as compared to the previous year and reach Rs. 1.14 trillion,” read report.

Share of capital formation in the GDP will remain at 42.5 per cent in the current fiscal, last year it was 22.7 per cent.

Likewise, the share of national savings will be 10.25 per cent of the GDP which was 3.82 per cent last year.

In the last eight months electricity supply is increased by 105.6 megawatt and reached 961 megawatt.

Similarly, road network has reached 29,153 kilometre.

In the first eight months of the current fiscal, Nepal has received pledges of Rs. 213 billion foreign aid, and remittances increased by 5.3 per cent and reached Rs. 450 billion.

During the period the country exported the goods worth Rs. 48.22 billion while the imports soared to Rs. 628 billion, 44.2 per cent up from the last fiscal.

DPM Mahara said that it was challenging to end dependency, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and make Nepal a middle income country by 2030.

Likewise, the report said that the availability of investment resource at the federal, provincial and local level, allotment and mobilization of the resources and sustainable development were also the challenges.

Similarly, generating employment in the country and stop the youth from going abroad in search of jobs, creating industrial infrastructure, fighting with the climate change and developing scientific land use policy have been identified as the challenges to the sustained economic growth.

(Published in The Rising Nepal Daily, May 29, 2017)