Recovery Indicators

The present coalition government has laid greater emphasis on good governance, stability, effective service delivery and inclusive prosperity after it was formed eight months ago. Its bold action against those involved in corruption scams and forgery of documents demonstrate its commitment to root out corruption. The common people have praised the government for prosecuting the politicians, bureaucrats and swindlers for their nefarious design to make Nepalis as Bhutanese refugees and send them to United States of America. Likewise, those involved in the illegal transfer of the Lalita Niwas land into the private individuals have been remanded into judicial custody for further investigation and trial. Now the process has been intensified to file cases against the persons who smuggled 60-kg gold from the Tribhuvan International Airport recently. These actions have raised people’s confidence in the government.

The country’s economy was in a bad shape when Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda took the helm of office. The economy was set to plunge into recession with high inflation due to soaring costs of foreign goods, widening trade deficit, depletion of foreign reserves, imbalance in the Balance of Payment and rising rate of unemployment. This unintended situation emerged as the post-pandemic recovery was sluggish, posing a formidable challenge to the government to resuscitate the flagging economy. The negative perception and damaging rumours that economy was going to collapse had also dented the confidence of the business sector.  The government took a series of steps, including incentives for the COVID-hit business sector and tight monetary policy so that the economy would not worsen further. These recovery measures gradually paid off. Today, the country’s economic health has greatly improved and stands on solid footing. 

Prime Minister Prachanda has said that the government had invigorated national economy by boosting production, job, sustainable inclusive growth, conducive investment climate and macroeconomic stability. The PM was responding to the queries of lawmakers in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday.  According to him, the latest report of Nepal Rastra Bank presents positive economic indicators. The foreign exchange reserves have increased by 26.6 per cent and reached Rs. 1,539.3 billion by the end of the last fiscal year. The country’s balance sheets stands at a surplus of Rs. 290.5 billion, which is sufficient to maintain imports for around 10 months. Likewise, the remittance income has grown by 21.2 per cent and reached Rs. 1.220.5 billion. The government has lowered approval thresholds to streamline the process for attracting the foreign investment. This is a part of reforms in policies aimed at overcoming the institutional bottlenecks.  

 The Prime Minister told the parliament that the government had earmarked sufficient budget to complete the national pride projects considered as the economic game changer. The construction works of two pride projects have been finished, 14 have achieved 80 per cent progress, five have advanced from 50 to 80 per cent and two are at 50 per cent success. On the other hand, the Pashupati Area Development Fund has made 66 per cent physical work progress and the Lumbini Development Master Plan 88 per cent. The government has allocated Rs. 250 million for the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport that is in the process of finalising the investment and construction modality. Encouraging trends in the economy, service delivery, administration, tourism, agriculture, education and foreign policy amply suggest that the coalition government is on the right track and keen to meet its stated goals of social justice, prosperity and good governance.