Kathmandu, January 1
Nepal’s economic growth rate in 2019/20 will be limited to 7 per cent mainly due to sluggish government expenditure.
Experts, who were speaking at a meeting of parliament’s Finance Committee, said that the government’s failure to prioritise projects and the lawmakers’ inability to go beyond small-scale projects are hurting the economy.
During programme, which saw the participation of economists such as Govinda Nepal and Biswambher Pyakurel, experts argued that the government has only spent 10 per cent of its capital budget in the six months of the fiscal. This is not adequate to stimulate growth in the economy, they said. “It would be a miracle if we achieve growth of over 8 per cent if the government has just spent 10 per cent of the budget in six months.”
Nepal achieved a growth rate of around 7 per cent last fiscal.
The government recently revised its economic growth target for 2019-20 to 7.01 percent, down by 1.49 percent of the projected target of 8.5 percent. The Finance Ministry lowered the projection after assessing the -budget implementation progress. According to the ministry officials, the revised economic growth projection was based on the anticipation of low agricultural growth throughout 2019-20 and the sluggish government expenditure.
