KATHMANDU, April 20: Nepal’s trade deficit has expanded by 13.04 percent to Rs 1.267 trillion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, driven by a sharp imbalance between import spending and export earnings.
According to foreign trade statistics released by the Department of Customs (DoC), the country’s total trade volume grew by 14.40 percent to Rs 1.713 trillion in the review period. However, export earnings have failed to keep pace with ballooning import expenses, resulting in a widening trade gap.
Between mid-July and mid-April of the current fiscal year, Nepal’s exports stood at Rs 222.93 billion, an increase of Rs 34.74 billion (18.46 percent) compared to the same period last year. In contrast, imports surged by Rs 181 billion (13.82 percent) to Rs 1.490 trillion.
Nepal’s foreign trade declines, trade deficit reaches over Rs 1...
The disparity was particularly stark in the past month alone. From mid-March to mid-April, Nepal earned just Rs 31.82 billion from exports while spending a staggering Rs 201 billion on imports.
Despite the widening deficit, there have been marginal improvements in the structure of foreign trade. The share of exports in total trade increased to 13.01 percent this year from 12.57 percent last year, while the share of imports declined slightly from 87.43 percent to 86.99 percent.
The country’s imports-to-exports ratio also improved modestly, falling to 6.69 from 6.96 a year ago. This means Nepal now spends Rs 6.69 on imports for every Re 1 earned from exports, compared to Rs 6.96 previously.
Edible oils emerged as a major export category, with Nepal selling finished products worth Rs 105 billion. However, the country imported unprocessed edible oils valued at Rs 129 billion, resulting in a negative trade balance of Rs 23.30 billion for this product group alone.
Soybean oil accounted for 95 percent of the total imports of unprocessed oil, with imports reaching Rs 96.75 billion, while its exports stood at Rs 90.71 billion.
Imports of essential agricultural commodities also increased. Nepal imported paddy and rice worth Rs 32.51 billion, up from Rs 32.12 billion. Although the volume of staple food imports fell slightly to 638,787 tons from 650,046 tons, expenditure rose by more than Rs 390 million.
Potato imports increased by more than 53,000 tons, rising from 239,557 tons to 292,935 tons, with total spending climbing from Rs 6.02 billion to Rs 7.08 billion. Similarly, imports of dry onion nearly doubled to 141,422 tons, pushing expenditure up from Rs 3.12 billion to Rs 5.79 billion.
-1776353206.webp)
