Kathmandu, March 4
Nepal’s economic growth rate was -1.99 per cent last fiscal year (2019/20), says a government agency, citing the Covid-19 pandemic severely hit the country’s turbulent economy.
As per a report made public by the Central Bureau of Statistics under the National Planning Commission, Nepal recorded a negative economic growth rate in the year from mid-July 2019 to mid-July 2020.
This is a more severe condition than the time after the 2015 earthquake. In the fiscal year, 2015/16, the country’s economy growth rate was zero per cent as per the bureau’s calculation.
In the last quarter of the fiscal year, the rate was -15 per cent.
Although the government has targeted achieving the growth rate of 2.7 per cent for this fiscal year 2020/21 (mid-July 2020 to mid-July 2021), the bureau says the rate was -4.6 per cent in the first quarter (up to mid-October 2020).
