'I was effortful to bring economy back to normal', says Dr Mahat

Patan (Lalitpur), March 12: Former Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat has said he had, as Finance Minister, tried to bring the economy back to normal with tireless efforts.     

Organizing a press meeting at Nepali Congress Party Central Office, Lalitpur, today, he, also the Spokesperson of the party, clarified that the economic indicators were not negative and he worked hard for the same.     

"The country's economy was under pressure when I took charge of the post of Finance Minister. We worked hard to bring the economy back to normal. Statistics published by Nepal Rastra Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank also proved the same," he stressed.     

The inflation rate was 8.5 per cent at the time when he was appointed the Finance Minister and it has been lowered to five per cent now, the former Finance Minister shared, adding interest rate of banks is decreasing in recent period due to liberal monetary policy to resolve problems seen in country's economy.     

He underlined that the increasing revenue collection of 10 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal year was satisfactory.     

The former Finance Minister mentioned that he carried out activities keeping good governance and frugality in mind while remaining in the government.     

He further said many investors were ready to invest in investment summit scheduled in April, claiming that he carried out activities in order to bring in more foreign investment through the investment summit.     

On a different note, Dr Mahat explained that the NC was strongly in favor of the then-ruling alliance and the Mahasamiti meeting of the party had also decided to give continuity to the same alliance. ((RSS)