Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel has stated that achieving the economic growth target for the current fiscal year will be very difficult. He mentioned this while making the Economic Survey of the current fiscal year 2077/78 public today.
The finance minister said that the coronavirus and the prohibitory orders imposed across the country to curb its spread had massively affected economic activities in the country. As a result, achieving the economic growth target set by the government will be challenging.
In the previous fiscal year 2076/77, Nepal’s economic growth had contracted by 2.12 per cent. It had been estimated that the economic growth rate of the country would stand at 4.01 per cent in the current fiscal year but that too is difficult, mentioned Minister Poudel.
Prior to today’s announcement by the finance minister the Central Bureau of Statistics had stated that Nepal’s economic growth in the current fiscal year would stand at 4.01 per cent. In fact, while announcing the budget for the current fiscal year the government had estimated the economic growth rate would stand at around seven per cent this fiscal.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Sishir Kumar Dhungana, claimed that the economy was on the right track and was doing better than in previous times before the prohibitory orders were imposed. However, he added that the second wave of the coronavirus and the prohibitory orders have had a negative impact on Nepal’s economy.
Secretary Dhungana mentioned that the Finance Ministry had expected the economic growth rate of the country to stand at five per cent during the mid-term review of the budget but the prohibitory orders that have been imposed at present have made it difficult to achieve that target.
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