Health at Home adds radiology service

 Kathmandu, Aug. 7

Health at Home Medpro International Pvt. Ltd. has started providing radiology services at home.

The company which has been providing health services at home has also started providing radiology services at home targeting patients who need radiology services at their bedside.

The Radiology Department of Home Health will provide ultrasound and echocardiography, it said in a statement on Sunday. It aims to add X-ray and various other radiology services in the near future.

Former HOD of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and current head of Medicity Hospital, Prof. Dr. Ram Kumar Ghimire inaugurated the radiology department of Health at Home. Dr. Pradeep Raj Regmi and Dr. Ujjal Bhattarai are leading the radiology department at Health at Home.

Dr. Ghimire said that radiology is one of the much-needed services in the community, and maintained that professional commitment and innovation are needed for patient care.

He said that the service should be based on ethics and should be based on the welfare of the patient.

Likewise, Dr. Ragmi expressed his hope that Health at Home as a service will reach out patients in the community without proper radiology services will get a lot of help.

Founder and chief executive officer of Health at Home Dr. Vishal Dhakal said that only after the addition of the new service department, the commitment to caring for patients in the community has become stronger. About 12 years ago, Health at Home, founded by Dr. Vishal Dhakal, has been providing health services by reaching the homes. 

Published in The Rising Nepal dain 8 August 2022. 

Economy set to grow by 5.8%

Size of Nepali economy reaches Rs. 4105.5 billion

 

Kathmandu, Apr. 28

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has estimated that the economy will grow by 5.84 per cent at consumer price in the current fiscal year 2021/22. At basic price, the growth would be 5.49 per cent.

The statistical body under the National Planning Commission (NPC) has made the projections on the basis of the calculation of nine months real statistics and three months estimated economic activities.

It is the highest projection of the growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country amidst the liquidity crisis and external sector pressures when the multilateral donors like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have put the expansion estimates at 3.7 per cent and 3.9 per cent (at market price).

Although there are threats from the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and external sector shocks inflicted by Russia-Ukraine war, we have assumed that there wouldn't be much harm to economic activities in the remaining period of the fiscal year, said Nebin Lal Shrestha, Director General of the CBS.

Presenting the Annual Estimates of National Accounts of Fiscal Year 2021/22, Director of the CBS, Ishwori Prasad Bhandari said that the economic growth for the previous fiscal year 2020/21 was adjusted to 3.8 per cent from the earlier projection of 4.3 per cent.

Likewise, growth of economy during the first wave of COVID-19 in 2019/20 was set to -2.4 per cent. As per last year's projections, it was 1.99 per cent. Last year, the CBS had rebased the national accounts statistics from 2000/01 to 2010/11.

Size of economy Rs. 4105.5 billion

With this growth, the size of Nepali economy at current price has reached Rs. 4105.5 billion from Rs. 3662.4 billion in 2020/21. The size is measured Rs. 4851.8 billion in constant price.

Agriculture is witnessing a slow growth of 2.3 per cent this year while real estate and food services will expand by 11.4 per cent, construction by 9.5 per cent, trade and vehicle servicing by 9.1 per cent, and electricity and gas by 36.7 per cent.

But non-agriculture sector is growing by 6.9 per cent – industry by 10.29 per cent and service by 5.93 per cent.

Last year, agriculture, industry and service sectors witnessed the growth of 2.95 per cent, 4.36 per cent and 4.19 per cent respectively.

In a decade from 2010/11, contribution of primary sector to GDP is decreased to 25 per cent from 34 per cent while secondary (industry) sector has remained unchanged at 14 per cent, and tertiary (service) sector has climbed to 62 per cent from 52 per cent.

Elections support economic growth

Dr. Ram Prasad Phuyal, Member of the NPC, said that elections in this and next fiscal year will help to expand the size of the economy, it will provide some respite to the current contraction.

"We must focus on and strengthen the primary and secondary sector rather than imports to enlarge the economy," he said. According to him, the NPC has begun reviewing the 15^th periodic plan and growth projections will be adjusted considering the impacts of the pandemic on economic and business activities.

Likewise, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, Secretary of the NPC, said that Nepali economy has not contracted as the neighbouring and other economies shrunk. Large size of informal economy such as agriculture and businesses had prevented it from further contracting.

He maintained that the calculation of the CBS was different from the projection of the World Bank and ADB since the former used more robust data and analysis than these multilateral donors.

Bhandari also said that the confidence of people and entrepreneurs had gone up significantly. However, emergence of new variant of the COVID-19 continues to pose threats to the Nepali economy as well.

GDP per capita increases by 12.3 per cent

GDP per capita of Nepal at nominal price has reached Rs. 164,598 this year. It was Rs. 146,521 last year. It is a growth of 12.34 per cent against the growth of 8.94 per cent last year. This calculation is made by dividing the total production or income by the number of people in the country. This year, the updated demographic data generated by the Census 2021 is used.

Similarly, Gross National Income reached Rs. 165,649 from Rs. 147,318, and Gross National Domestic Income reached Rs. 201,923.

However, remittance inflow as the per cent of GDP reached 19.81 per cent. It has come down from 22.47 per cent last year. Nepal exported goods equal to 6.6 per cent of the GDP.

Likewise, final consumption of expenditure as percentage of GDP is 90.73 and domestic saving is 9.27 per cent.

Nepal had begun GDP compilation from 1961/62. It takes three years - preliminary, revised and final phase - to get the final statistics of economic indicators. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 April 2022. 

Nepal's per capita income grows by over $100 for second year in a row

Kathmandu, Apr. 25: The average income of Nepali citizen has witnessed a 'significant' growth for the second year in a row.

The Per Capita Income (PCI) of Nepalis has touched four digits for the first time and reached US $1,004 – NRs. 106,333 annually.

The PCI that hovered around US $700 - $750 from 2011 to 2016 had reached $862 in the last fiscal 2016/17, the year which witnessed the highest economic growth in more than two decades.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), a statistical body under the National Planning Commission, continuous growth in manufacturing and construction activities after the earthquake had pushed the income up.

CBS Director General Suman Raj Aryal said that the growth in PCI indicates that economic activities had been increased over the years.  

Construction and manufacturing sector are expected to grow by 7.60 per cent and 8.04 per cent respectively.

If the country continued to achieve the same growth, it would meet the income target required to graduate Nepal from the current status of Least Developed Country (LDC) to a developing one by 2022.

Recently, the government had sent a note to the United Nations that it didn't want to graduate from the LDC this year, as per its earlier plan.

Nepal was apprehensive of not meeting the target of Gross National Income (GNI) PCI $1242 in 2018 though the country is eligible to graduate on two other criteria – Human Asset Index and Economic Vulnerability Index.

The CBS has also projected that the economic growth of the current fiscal year will be 5.89 per cent, more than 1.5 percentage point down from the previous year.

According to the revised forecast, the growth rate for the previous fiscal year 2016/17 is 7.39 per cent which was earlier estimated at 6.94 per cent.

However, the projection is higher than the estimates of the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, 4.7 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.

India, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan are expected to see the growth of 6.5 per cent, 6.9 per cent, 7.3 per cent, 7.69 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.

The CBS projection has shown that the share of primary sector, which includes agriculture, forestry, fishery and mines, is continuously going down.

"Primary sector will have 28.21 per cent share in the economy this year as compared to last year's 29.35," said Ishwari Prasad Bhandari, Director of the CBS.

Composition of GDP (in %)

Sector	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18
Primary Sector	32.17	29.35	28.21
Secondary Sector	13.64	14.09	14.18
Tertiary Sector	54.19	56.56	57.61

Source: CBS

The share of secondary sector, including construction, manufacturing, energy and water, has almost remained constant at 14.18 per cent while the share of tertiary sector – trade, communication, 

transportation, and other service industries – has gone up by more than 1 per cent point to 57.61 per cent.

The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are expected to grow this year by 2.92 per cent, 8.77 per cent and 6.62 per cent.  

The remittance inflow is projected to go down to 24.25 per cent as compared to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 26.8 per cent in the last fiscal.

Similarly, the final consumption is 84.97 per cent and gross fixed capital formation is 34.11 per cent of the GDP.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 26 April 2018. 

GDP to reach 7 per cent this year

Kathmandu, Apr. 25:

Nepal is likely to achieve the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the current fiscal year after more than two decades.

According to the estimates published Tuesday by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), a national statistical organisation under the National Planning Commission (NPC), the country will witness GDP growth rate of 6.94 per cent at basic price in the fiscal year 2016/17.

It is a remarkable achievement against the growth rate of the last fiscal year.

GDP Growth Rate at Basic Price

The statistical body has revised the growth rate of the last fiscal to 0.01 per cent from the earlier estimate of 0.77 per cent.

"With the projected 6.94 per cent growth rate of GDP in the current fiscal, the GDP of the country at basic price will reach Rs. 2293.98 billion," said Ishwori Prasad Bhandari, director of CBS. 

The GDP at purchaser's price will be Rs. 2599.23 billion.

"The earthquake and blockade last year caused the growth rate dipped low in one-and-a-half decades. But, this year has been a fruitful year in terms of economic progress because of favourable monsoon and energy availability. Similarly, the manufacturing sector also witnessed a significant growth," said Chandra Kumar Ghimire, secretary at the NPC.

The country witnessed a growth rate of 5.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent in the FY 2013/14 and FY 2014/15 respectively.

Last time it achieved above 6 per cent growth rate in 2008, after the conclusion of Maoist insurgency. Similarly, there was a growth of 6.2 per cent in FY 1999/2000.

Nepal attained 8.2 per cent GDP growth rate in 1993/94.

The primary sector, consisting of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and mines, contributed 30 per cent to the GDP estimates for the current fiscal.

Secondary sector, consisting construction, industry, gas and water, contributed 14 per cent while the tertiary sector, including trade, hospitality, transportation, communication, financial intermediary, real state, health and other social sectors, contributed 55.99 per cent to the estimated GDP.

The service sector's growth rate is 5.3 per cent, 11 per cent and 6.9 per cent in the FY 2014/15, FY 2015/16 and FY 2016/17 respectively, while the manufacturing sector witnessed the growth rate of -0.01 per cent, -6.45 per cent and 2.6 per cent in the same period. 

Share on GDP by Broad Categories

"Due to the improved supply of electricity and less strikes and bandhs, the manufacturing sector performed quite well with 9.7 per cent growth. It had witnessed a negative growth rate of 8 per cent in the last fiscal," said Ghimire.

Likewise, increment in electricity, gas and water will be about 13 per cent, and construction sector will grow by 11.66 per cent.

Most of the sectors like mining, hotels and restaurants, transport and communication, and wholesale and retail trade are expected to perform well in the current fiscal as compared to previous fiscal.

The CBS said that the net fixed capital formation in the current fiscal will be Rs. 878.60 billion, and per capita GDP will be Rs. 90,521 or 853 US dollars.

Director general of the CBS Suman Raj Aryal said that the positive growth in most of the macroeconomic indicators showed that the country was at a remarkable economic growth trajectory.

GDP Growth Rate trend

Year	Rate (%)
1982/83	-3.0
1983/84	9.7
1987/88	7.7
1993/94	8.2
1999/00	6.2
2001/02	0.1
2007/08	6.1
2013/14	5.4
2014/15	3.4
2015/16	0.01
2016/17	6.94

Source: CBS