By A Staff Reporter Kathmandu, May 25: Nepal’s export trade has increased significantly during the first ten months of the current fiscal year 2021/22.
According to the foreign trade statistics published by the Department of Customs, Nepal’s export trade has increased by 59.80 per cent to Rs. 173.34 billion during the first ten months (mid-July, 2021 to mid-May 2022) of the current fiscal year.
Goods worth Rs. 108.47 billion had been exported during the first ten months of the last fiscal year.
Even though exports went up significantly, the ratio of export to import is still 1:9.26.
The ration of export to import was 1:11.56 in the same period last fiscal year.
The share of export in the total foreign trade is only 9.75per cent while that of import is at a whopping 90.25 per cent.
Imports slightly drop
Meanwhile, import trade increased by 27.95 per cent to Rs. 1,604.65 billion during the review period. In the same period of the last fiscal year, the country imported goods worth Rs. 1,254.11 billion.
The ratio of import has slightly decreased in the last one month (mid-April to mid-May, 2022) after the government has adopted measures to control import to maintain the foreign currency reserves.
The goods worth Rs. 137.99 billion have been imported in the month of Baishak (mid-April to mid-May) while goods worth around Rs. 157.93 billion in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) and Rs. 161.27 billion in the month of Falgun (mid-February to mid-March 2022) had been imported.
Nepal Rastra Bank has already applied measures to tighten the import of luxurious and non-essential items in an attempt to control trade deficit.
During the review period, the trade deficit has increased by 24.94 per cent to Rs. 1,431.30 billion.
The country’s foreign trade volume has reached Rs. 1,778 billion during the review period which is 30.49 per cent more than the previous year.
POL products import stands over Rs. 243 billion
According to the data released by the Department of Customs, Nepal has imported petroleum products worth Rs. 243.96 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year.
Diesel is the most imported commodity in the first ten months of the current fiscal year. Diesel worth Rs. 123.70 billion has been imported during the period.
Meanwhile, petrol worth Rs. 54.83 billion, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) worth Rs. 52 billion, aviation fuel worth Rs. 11.27 billion, kerosene Rs. 1.29 billion, lubricants worth Rs. 5.22 billion and petroleum bitumen worth Rs. 6.92 billion have been imported.
The country imported crude soybean oil worth Rs. 49.41 billion, crude palm oil worth Rs. 34.74 billion and crude sunflower oil worth Rs. 17.38 billion during the review period.
Soybean oil had the largest share in export during the review period. Soybean oil worth Rs. 45.35 billion has been exported in the first ten months of the current fiscal year.
Similarly, palm oil is the second most exported commodity after soybean oil. Palm oil worth Rs. 37.93 billion has been exported during the review period.
Cardamom worth wwwRs. 4.22 billion, yarns worth Rs. 9.96 billion, tea and coffee worth Rs. 3.65 billion and carpet worth Rs. 7.89 billion have been exported during the review period.The Rising Nepal
