The overall Balance of Payment (BoP) recorded a deficit of Rs. 11.30 billion during the first eight months of this current fiscal year 2010/11 compared to a deficit of Rs. 19.12 billion in the same period last year.

The current account also registered a deficit of Rs. 8.87 billion compared to a deficit of Rs. 30.50 billion in the same period last year. According to a data maintained by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the decline in trade deficit along with improvement in current transfer attributed to such a decline in the current account deficit.

The Free on Board (FOB) based merchandise trade deficit has increased marginally by 0.2 percent to Rs. 203.35 billion during the first eight months this current fiscal year. Such deficit had grown by 60.5 percent in the same period last year.

The service account deficit has also declined significantly by 22.2 percent to Rs. 7.54 billion during the review period while service account deficit had increased by 4.2 percent to Rs. 9.70 billion in the same period last year.

The net transfer account registered a growth of 12.8 percent to Rs. 198.03 billion in the review period compared to that of a year ago. Under the transfers sub-group, grants increased by 11.0 percent to Rs. 17.22 billion while pension receipts rose marginally by 9.4 percent to Rs. 19.43 billion.

Likewise, workers’ remittances increased by 12.3 percent to Rs. 161.62 billion compared to its growth of 9.9 percent in the same period last year.

On a monthly basis, the remittance inflows increased by 11.0 percent in February and March compared to the value of the previous month of this fiscal year.

Likewise, under the financial account foreign direct investment of Rs 5.47 billion was recorded in the review period compared to the level of Rs 1.61 billion in the same period a year ago. nepalnews.com