Nepal will run out of medicines, oil products, cars and a range of other items in seven months if things don’t improve, a central bank official said Friday.
The central bank has increased interest rates, hoping it will discourage people from buying imports and help extend the foreign reserves, said Gunakar Bhatta, spokesperson of Nepal Rastriya Bank, the central bank.
“We are concerned about the sustainability of our foreign exchange reserves,” Bhatta said.
But he said there already are signs that the situation is getting better with the slowing of the pandemic. More tourists have begun to arrive and increasing numbers of Nepalese are going abroad to earn foreign currency and send it back home, he said.
“Compared to previous years, the foreign exchange reserve level has come down, but we can manage it because the number of migrant workers that are going abroad has increased,” Bhatta said.
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