Nepal's forex reserve hits Rs 171 billion

Nepal's forex reserve hits Rs 171 billion
eKantipur.com, 8-Jun-2007

Propelled by continued healthy growth in remittance income, the country’s foreign currency reserve has scaled up to Rs 171.56 billion, an 11 percent increment than last year's total reserve.

The total remittance income stood at Rs 72.39 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year and the amount was 3 percent more than what was recorded during the same period last year. The remittance income last year was over Rs 95 billion during the fiscal year 2005/06.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the amount however is less than Rs 177.94 billion recorded a month ago mainly due to the a 4.44 percent appreciation of Nepalese currency against the US dollar within a month. The official exchange rate of one US dollar against the Nepali rupee was Rs 68.40 in mid-April and the rate slipped to touch Rs 65.46 within a month. According to NRB official, the accumulative appreciation of the domestic currency against the greenback has scaled up to 13.26 percent within the current fiscal year, starting in mid-July.

Among the total foreign currency reserve, the convertible currency that mainly comprises US dollar, accounted for Rs 165.64 billion, which was nearly 96.5 percent while remaining Rs 5.9 billion has been stored in the form of Indian currency.

In order to address the deepening short supply of Indian currency, the central bank has purchased Indian currency worth Rs 30.15 billon during the first ten months of the current fiscal year whereas it had purchased Rs 26.84 billion last fiscal year.

Likewise, central bank held almost 79 percent of the total foreign currency reserve, amounting Rs 134.83 billion while the commercial banks were holding the remaining Rs 36.72 billion till mid-May 2007.

Among the commercial banks, Standard Chartered Bank has the highest amount of foreign currency, amounting US$ 125 million followed by Himalayan Bank (US$ 107 million) and Nabil Bank (US$ 89 million).