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Nepal Economy 1996
Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for over
90% of the population and accounting for half of GDP. Industrial activity is
limited, mainly involving the processing of agricultural produce (jute,
sugarcane, tobacco, and grain). Production of textiles and carpets has
expanded recently and accounted for 85% of foreign exchange earnings in
FY93/94. Apart from agricultural land and forests, exploitable natural
resources are mica, hydropower, and tourism. Agricultural production in the
late 1980s grew by about 5%, as compared with annual population growth of
2.6%. More than 40% of the population is undernourished. Since May 1991, the
government has been encouraging trade and foreign investment, e.g., by
eliminating business licenses and registration requirements in order to
simplify domestic and foreign investment. The government also has been
cutting public expenditures by reducing subsidies, privatizing state
industries, and laying off civil servants. Prospects for foreign trade and
investment in the 1990s remain poor, however, because of the small size of
the economy, its technological backwardness, its remoteness, and
susceptibility to natural disaster. The international community provides
funding for 70% of Nepal's developmental budget and for 30% of total
budgetary expenditures. The government, realizing that attempts to reverse
three years of liberalization would jeopardize this vital support, almost
certainly will move ahead with its reform program in 1995-96.
GDP - purchasing power parity - $22.4 billion (1994 est.)
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National product real growth rate:
-
National product per capita:
-
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
NA%; note - there is substantial underemployment (1994)
$854 million, including capital expenditures of $427 million (FY93/94 est.)
$593 million (f.o.b., 1993) but does not include unrecorded border trade
with India
carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain
$899 million (c.i.f., 1993)
petroleum products 20%, fertilizer 11%, machinery 10%
India, Singapore, Japan, Germany
small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarette, textile, carpet,
cement, and brick production; tourism
rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, buffalo meat; not
self-sufficient in food, particularly in drought years
illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic and international drug
markets; transit point for heroin from Southeast Asia to the West
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $304 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-89), $2.23 billion; OPEC
bilateral aid (1979-89), $30 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $286
million
1 Nepalese rupee (NR) = 100 paisa
Nepalese rupees (NRs) per US$1 - 49.884 (January 1995), 49.398 (1994),
48.607 (1993), 42.742 (1992), 37.255 (1991), 29.370 (1990)
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