Views of a Nepali Economist

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Union leads to closure of Fire and Ice restaurant

Asian Development Bank projects four per cent growth in 2012 for Nepal Nepal slips eight positions down in the Economic Freedom rankings

Nepal has slipped eight position down to be ranked at 129th among the 141 economies with a score of 5.50 in this year’s Economic Freedom of the World report released here today. Last year, Nepal was at 121st rank with a score of 5.54.

World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development shows that closing gender gap boosts growth

“Countries that create better opportunities and conditions for women and girls can raise productivity, improve outcomes for children, make institutions more representative, and advance development prospects for all,” it said, adding that in Nepal as many as 14 per cent married women are largely silent on how their earned money is spent. “But they are more actively involved in the decision making recently,” according the World Bank that revealed that women’s greater public voice not only benefits women and children but also men. “Giving women bigger say in managing forests in Nepal has significantly improved conservation outcomes too,” it added. “The disparities between boys and girls in primary education have almost closed over the past 25 years, and at the secondary level, the gaps are shrinking rapidly,” it said, lauding Nepal’s efforts in closing the gender gap.

National Information Technology Centre to be established in Hetauda

The Centre’s building will be constricted at the estimated cost of Rs. 300 million with the grant assistance of the Korean government

India set to overtake Japan as world's third largest economy

India is now the fourth-largest economy behind the US, China and Japan. Last year, Japanese economy was worth $4.31 trillion, while India´s was at $4.06 trillion. But after the devastating tsunami and earthquakes in March, Japan´s economy is expected to contract while India´s economy will grow between 7-8 percent this fiscal year.

Earlier, a report by PwC suggested that the Indian economy would surpass the Japanese economy in 2012. The IMF expects the Japanese economy to contract 0.7 percent this year while India is expected to grow 8.2 percent.

BFIs told to insure deposits up to Rs 500,000

Banks and financial institutions (BFIs) that were required to compulsorily insure deposits up to Rs 200,000 will now need to insure all deposits up to half a million rupees.

Labels: banks, central bank of nepal, china, gender inequality, India, IT, Japan, labor unions

. Vegetable prices drop in Kathmandu

Thanks to rise in production and end of festivals, price of most of the vegetables has gone down

Maoist affiliated union causes popular Fire and Ice pizza restaurant to shut down

...the management was forced to close down the restaurant after the Maoist affiliated All Nepal Hotel Workers´ Association started a dispute over appointment of a new restaurant manager...members of the association along with its president manhandled some employees and misbehaved with the management

NRB caps Class B‚ C chief executives' salary

The central bank has directed the financial institutions — except class A commercial banks — to determine the remuneration for their CEOs based on the institution’s financial indicators...The central bank has asked the financial institutions to fix the salary of CEO based on the financial institutions’ business size, size of lending and deposits, size of operating profit, return on capital among others in the last three years.

Trade deficit up to Rs 330.34 billion

The total exports is still less than six times (Rs 64.56 billion from total merchandise) the import of Rs 394.90 billion

...the share of India in Nepal’s total trade increased to 66.4 per cent in 2010-11 compared to 59.1 per cent a fiscal year ago

...overall Balance of Payment (BoP) that had remained in deficit till the ten months ended with a ‘surprise’ Rs 2.93 billion surplus against a deficit of Rs 3.63 billion in a fiscal year...current account deficit shrank to Rs 11.91 billion from a deficit of Rs 28.14 billion a year ago...net transfer account registered a growth of 8.9 per cent to Rs 307.86 billion compared to that of a year ago...pension receipts rose by 12.2 per cent to Rs 28.99 billion...workers’ remittances increased by 9.4 per cent to Rs 253.55 billion...FDI of Rs 6.44 billion was recorded compared to the level of Rs 2.85 billion a fiscal year ago...capital transfer increased by 26.5 per cent to Rs 15.91 billion compared to the level of Rs 12.58 billion a fiscal ago...gross foreign exchange reserves increased by a mere 1.2 per cent to Rs 272.10 billion in mid-July from the level of Rs 268.91 billion as at mid-July 2010...Of total reserve, NRB’s reserves augmented by 3.8 per cent to Rs 213.09 billion in mid-July 2011 from a level of Rs 205.37 billion as at mid-July 2010...gross foreign exchange reserves in Us dollar terms increased by 6.2 per cent to $3.84 billion in mid-July...Based on the trend of import during the review year, the current level of reserves is sufficient for financing merchandise imports of 8.4 months and merchandise and service imports of 7.3 months

Ginger farming all the rage among Kailali farmers

As much as 3,000 metric tons of ginger is produced from 500 hectares of land in the VDCs...ginger worth around Rs 100 million was supplied to India from hilly districts in the Far-Western Development Region last year

Rukum farmers reap rich rewards of asparagus farming

...each farmer has...earned Rs 150,000 to Rs 300,000 from the commercial asparagus farming every year

An interview with Surya Nepal's corporate vice president about whether or not their garment factory will repoen

Labels: exports, inflation, Kailali, labor unions, nepal rastra bank, Rukum, surya nepal

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Use of internet bandwidth increasing

*Consumers of data and internet services have reached to 3,111,858 with overall 10.89 per cent internet penetration rate by mid-July
*Nepal Telecom has a total of 1,133,876 data and internet subscribers
*Ncell has 1,874,078
*UTL has 51,377 internet subscribers
*ISPs have 52,527
*There are 42 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Nepal currently

Banks' shareholders return decreases

In the last quarter of the fiscal year, the commercial banks’ return on equity recorded decline from that of third quarter when the average return on equity of the commercial banks stood at 15.56 per cent. Generally, the return on equity between 15 per cent and 20 per cent are considered desirable.

Among the 21 banks that have published Return on Equity in their financials, 12 commercial banks’ return on equity is above the average while nine commercial banks’ return on equity is less than the industrial average of 14.4 per cent.

Governor calls for investment in agriculture‚ service sectors

Banks' interest income rising

The higher lending interest rate due to tight liquidity situation pushed the interest income of the commercial banks by Rs 10 billion in the last fiscal year compared to a fiscal year ago. The total interest income of the commercial banks stood at Rs 37.8 billion by the end of fiscal year 2010-11, while the commercial banks had recorded Rs 27.8 billion a fiscal year ago, according to the unaudited financial report of fourth quarter released by the commercial banks.

In the last fiscal year (2010-11), the average net interest income of the commercial banks stood at Rs 1.21 billion while a fiscal year ago, the average net interest income of the whole banking sector was at Rs 896 million. Even discounting the four new commercial banks that were not in existence a fiscal year before, the average interest income of the old 27 commercial banks amount to Rs 1.38 billion in last fiscal year. In the preceding fiscal year these 27 banks had recorded Rs 1.03 billion as the average net interest income.

The old commercial banks’ interest income — that is income from interest on lending — rose to Rs 42 billion which was almost half at Rs 27 billion a fiscal year ago. The interest expense — that is interest paid for the depositors — also surged from Rs 57.5 billion to Rs 80.5 billion in fiscal year 2010-11.

The interest rate offered by the banks for deposit ranges from mere two per cent to 12 per cent, according to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data

Garments demand in Europe up

...export of Nepali ready made garments has increased by 11.5 per cent compared to same period last year in the first eleven month of the last fiscal year...

PM to set up Economic Cell

Four Dharan drug makers close factories...unions to blame?

Nepal Telecom slashes data tariff by 33 percent

NT data uses will now have to pay just 10 paisa for 100 KB of data. Earlier, the state-owned telecom operator was charging 15 paisa per 100 KB. The tariff is applicable for subscribers using via from GPRS, PDSN, EVDO and 3G technologies.

NT has also slashed inter-zone voice tariff from VSAT, PSTN and fixed CDMA to GSM and CDMA to Rs 1 per minute. It was charging Rs 2 per minute for the service.

The state-owned telecom operator has also slashed subscription charge for CDMA Skyphone to Rs 600 with the talk value of Rs 500. Previously, it was charging Rs 1,135 as service charge for CDM Skyphone.

Two-wheelers registration slumps

...4,761 units of two-wheelers were registered in the first month of the current fiscal year in Bagmati zone...In the fiscal year 2010/11, about 53,960 units of bikes were registered in the Bagmati zone...Currently, Nepali customers pay 80 percent tax on two-wheelers and 238 percent tax on four-wheelers

Industries’ closure hits women the most

...around 20,000 workers lost their jobs in the past seven years in the Morang-Sunsari corridor. Of them, around 60 percent were women. The seven years saw more than two dozen industries of readymade garment products, ghee, jutes and zinc plate, shut down.

...the Surya Nepal’s garment division was employing 550 women...JD Apparels that was shut down one-and-a-half years ago had 1,300 women working...700 women lost their jobs when Easy Wear was closed

Airlines raise frequency for peak tourist season

Bhutan’s national carrier Druk Air, which currently operates daily flights between Kathmandu and Paro, has applied for six additional flights weekly under the temporary operating permit (TOP) from Sept 29

Air China and China Southern Airlines...have added three and four flights per week respectively, increasing their frequency to seven per week...Fly Dubai has been granted seven additional flights under the TOP for a total of 14 flights per week...Qatar Airways has upped its flight frequency to 28 flights per week from 21 which will be operational from Oct 1...Hong Kong-based Dragonair has increased its Kathmandu-Hong Kong flights to seven per week from thrice a week...Gulf Air is planning to add two flights per week due to strong demand from the European market

Bahrain Air and Arke Fly have announced resumption of their operations to Nepal. Bahrain Air resumed its flights from Sept 2 while Netherlands-based Arke Fly is scheduled to start service from Sept 23. Arke Fly will be operating a weekly flight while Bahrain Air operates a daily flight....Low-cost Indian carrier IndiGo will be the 28th international airline in Nepal’s skies when it starts its daily service from the second week of October

Labels: airlines, banks, garment, internet, labor unions, nepal telecom, nepal tourism year

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1. In The Land of the Buddha, a Buddhist nun awaits justice

2. Nepalese Rupee continues to weaken

Nepali rupee weakened by 42 paisa against a US dollar over the week, as the greenback bounced back in India with which currency the rupee is pegged. On Friday, a dollar was valued at Rs 73.91.

3. Chandan writes about Imprudent unions & weak industries

4. Prices of building materials fall as demand drops

According to dealers, brick, cement and steel prices have dropped significantly in a year due to low demand and rising competition.

...price of cement price has come down by Rs 100-150 per bag depending on the brand, of which there are more than 30 in the market.

...price of steel...has come down by over Rs 10 per kg in a year

Brick prices have also gone down 10-22 percent

5. Nepal’s Election Commission among world’s best five

...more than 9.5 million voters have registered their names along with their photographs...Out of them 52 per cent are women...and...some 157 belong to the third gender

6. The State of Nepalese Banks and Financial Institutions

7. On Nepalese housing market

8. Paddy fields have shrunk 59,000 hectares in the last two years

...land under paddy cultivation has shrunk to 1.49 million hectares from 1.55 million hectares within two years...due to...increasing urbanization and crop diversification

Nepal has lost 59,464 hectares of paddy fields since 2008-09. The Eastern Tarai, the country’s major paddy producing region, lost 77,556 hectares of paddy fields within two years.

The five districts of Eastern Tarai contained 375,208 hectares of paddy fields in 2008-09 which have now diminished to 297,652 hectares. Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa and Chitwan districts of Central Tarai have 310,679 hectares of land under paddy plantation. Paddy fields in the Western Tarai districts—Nawalparasi, Rupendehi, and Kapilvastu—expanded to 190,190 hectares from 188,950 hectares in 2008-09. In the Mid-Western Tarai districts of Dang, Banke and Bardia, the area under paddy cultivation rose to 117,550 hectares in 2011 from 112,458 hectares in 2008-09. The Far Western Tarai districts of Kailali and Kanchanpur together have 106,655 hectares under paddy cultivation.

The Numbers:(in hectares)
Tarai Belt// 2008-09// 2011-12

EASTERN

Jhapa// 96,700// 82,400
Morang// 88,200// 78,200
Sunsari// 51,158// 53,791
Saptari// 68,400// 37,691
Siraha// 70,750// 45,570
TOTAL// 375208// 297652

CENTRAL

Dhanusha// 55,000// 61,972
Mahottari// 40,250// 34,716
Sarlahi// 38,750// 39,350
Rautahat// 46,800// 42,396
Bara// 55,335// 52,725
Parsa// 46,200// 46,690
Chitwan// 32,755// 32,770
TOTAL// 315090// 310619

WESTERN

Nawalparasi// 46,490// 46,690
Rupendehi// 72,500// 71,500
Kapilvastu// 69,960// 72,000
TOTAL// 188950// 190190

MIDWEST

Dang// 37,458// 38,500
Banke// 36,500// 36,500
Bardia// 38,500// 42,550
Total// 112458// 117550

FAR WEST

Kailali// 60,000// 60,000
Kanchanpur// 46,655// 46,655
TOTAL// 106655// 106655

Labels: banks, construction, election commission, garment, housing, IRs, labor unions, NRs, nun, paddy