Foreign trade deficit widens

Kathmandu, Oct 29: Foreign trade deficit has widened in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. According to the Foreign Trade Statistics released by the custom department, foreign trade deficit widened by 2.15 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal year (FY) in comparison of the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The data showed that total amount of the trade accounted Rs 366.88 billion in the first three months of the current FY while the previous FY trade accounted Rs 359.17 billion. 

Similarly total imports in the first quarter of the current FY accounted Rs 407.75 billion while the imports in the same period of the previous FY Rs 400.98 billion. 

However, export has slightly decreased by (-2.26) per cent in the first quarter of the current FY in comparison the same period of the previous FY.  The data revealed that total export accounted Rs 40.87 billion in the first quarter of the current FY meanwhile in the previous FY of same period the export account Rs 41.82 billion.